Stochastic Worship

Author: David

  • Happy Ascension Day

    Happy Ascension Day

    Of course, there’s a playlist.

    It’s a day of mixed feelings. On the one hand, we’d love to have Jesus physically present in one geographical location for us to book an appointment to spend a few moments with Him, before we’re ushered out and the next party of awkward tourists gets their instagram-ready photo opportunity.

    No, scratch that. We really are better off with Him reigning in the Heavens, having sent the Holy Spirit to engage with each of us, whenever we want, wherever we are, however we feel.

    That’s why Ascension Day, instead of a time of sorrowful farewells, becomes an opportunity for joyful hope, looking forward to Pentecost and further beyond to His glorious return in the same way that He left us; visibly, physically and in great power.

    Of the songs I’ve curated on this theme, I particularly like Jesus Ascended because of its unashamed triumphalism and the way it weaves other aspects of the the gospel narrative into the song.

    [Verse]
    He is risen from the grave so high
    Shining bright in the endless sky
    The stone is rolled the veil is torn
    In His light new life is born

    [Chorus]
    Jesus ascended seated above
    Reigning in power ruling in love
    King of all glory Lamb who was slain
    Forever and ever He shall reign

    [Verse 2]
    The cross was heavy the pain was real
    Through His wounds our souls are healed
    Darkness trembled the earth it shook
    Victory written in His holy book

    [Chorus]
    Jesus ascended seated above
    Reigning in power ruling in love
    King of all glory Lamb who was slain
    Forever and ever He shall reign

    [Bridge]
    Holy holy is His name
    Forever and ever He’s the same
    Crowned with honor robed in light
    He is the way the truth the life

    [Chorus]
    Jesus ascended seated above
    Reigning in power ruling in love
    King of all glory Lamb who was slain
    Forever and ever He shall reign

  • While we’re on the subject of sheep…

    While we’re on the subject of sheep…

    The Fourth Sunday of the Easter Season is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. Psalm 23 and Jesus’ identity as the Good Shepherd are fruitful themes for hymnwriters, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they are popular in the AI world too. Here’s my playlist. Others are out there too.

  • Feed My Sheep

    Feed My Sheep

    It’s the Third Sunday of Easter – one of the Lectionary readings is from the 21st chapter of John’s Gospel. It’s a moving moment. Peter has seen the risen Lord. However, he feels that after his betrayal when Jesus needed him most, perhaps it would be better if he and the others returned to their old way of life, when things were simpler and far safer.

    So they go fishing. The last thing they expect is for Jesus to turn up. But He does. Because it’s time for Peter to accept the challenge he was given three short years ago. Jesus urges him three times. To parallel Peter’s three denials.

    I felt the song created by the model was a fitting finale to my John’s Gospel playlist. It draws from other parts of Peter’s story – his confession of faith at Caesarea Philippi and his attempt to walk on water in Matthew 14. But most importantly, the way the repetitive command to “Feed my sheep”. integrates well as the chorus.

    [Verse]
    On the shore when morning breaks
    Cast your net across the waves
    Fish abound where darkness fades
    Familiar voice calls out your name

    [Verse 2]
    Three times asked do you love me
    Feed my lambs and set them free
    Peter wept by dawn’s first light
    Turned his heart from wrong to right

    [Chorus]
    Feed my sheep and love my flock
    Build your faith upon this rock
    In your heart where I reside
    Guide them safely to my side

    [Verse 3]
    Walking down the sand-strewn path
    With the One who faced God’s wrath
    Grace pours down like endless rain
    Binding up what once was pain

    [Verse 4]
    Peter rise and walk with me
    Through the stormy Galilee
    Find your strength within my grace
    Every trial you shall face

    [Bridge]
    Three times love brought healing pure
    Past mistakes become obscure
    Rise and lead with strength anew
    Peter I believe in you

    That final line – points back to Peter’s confession all those years back, it’s obviously not in the gospel narrative. It’s a platitude we used to see on stickers and bookmarks many years ago. “God believes in YOU!” we would tell each other without thinking too hard about what that actually meant. Because it would mean that persecution and suffering would be our prize; a precious possession that our Loving Father knew He could entrust us with. Perhaps having a god who knew He couldn’t rely on you would be so much more … convenient.

    But for Peter, knowing what he would face in the future, it feels scarily apt.

    /

  • Noah’s Ark

    Noah’s Ark

    I was tempted to do a re-telling of the story in a different context, just for fun. But instead, kept it to being inspired just by the narrative in Genesis. It fascinates me that all over the world, different cultures tell a story of how a universal cataclysm took place in the past. Some archaeologists speculate that Noah’s story goes back to the Younger Dryas event. It’s an interesting thought, but beyond the scope of someone like me just using the story devotionally to explore who God is through the medium of song.

    In the first song of the playlist I’ve curated, the focus is on the people of Noah’s age. They’re not bad. They just have no place for the divine. No sense of wonder. No connection to an authentic expression of spiritual reality.

    That’s why they miss the signs. That’s what makes Noah and his family stand out. By the time we get to the third song, we see God’s hand in two tangible ways. The animals arrive, and once they’re all safe inside. God seals the door. He takes responsibility for what happens next.

    If it had been me, hearing my neighbours banging on the ark’s door, pleading to be allowed in, I would have found it impossible to say no. Despite the idiocy of such a move, insufficient supplies being the most immediate obstacle. That’s why there’s a recurring echo of the enormity of what has taken place in the suite.

    It’s a story full of symbolism. The raven and the dove, the rainbow. All could be explored in more depth, but surely that’s the whole point of these little songs? To awaken that spark of curiosity, to get you digging and praying in order to deepen your relationship with your Creator.

  • Why the funny name?

    Why the funny name?

    In case you’re wondering why I use the term “Stochastic Worship” to describe what I’m doing, here are a few thoughts.

    I use large language models as an aid to composing and virtually performing contemporary Christian worship music across a range of styles and musical genres. I use the term ‘stochastic worship’ to describe this activity.

    My use of the word ‘stochastic’ is to emphasise the fact that the outcomes – what comes out of a large language model in response to a given prompt – are essentially unpredictable, but they can be statistically analysed.

    We use stochastic processes all the time without realising it. Your local weather forecast is an obvious example. We can never perfectly predict the weather. It’s a chaotic system. But we can make models which behave in a similar way, based on our statistical observations.

    It’s a case of using a tool to do a job that I find I can do better one way than I could using more conventional methods. In the same way that we don’t insist that hymn writers only use quill pens and parchment or compose only for harpsichord and lute.

    The important thing is to recognise the limitations of the tools you use, and act accordingly. In the same way that we still pack an umbrella to a picnic, despite the weather forecast and tell our children to wash their hands before dinner after they have been playing outside.

  • Creeds

    Creeds

    A new project: how well can a randomly selected set of phrases and terms reflect the majestic craftsmanship which went into formulating the historic creeds of the Christian faith?

    Of course, there’s a playlist.

    I’m not entirely convinced that these buckets of words are helpful in producing a precise and concise confession of faith that covers all relevant doctrines. It’s good for sampling from them and finding things that fit together – it’s probably why I think the model did a far better job with setting scriptural proto-creedal statements to music than in paraphrasing actual creeds as songs.

  • Nehemiah

    Nehemiah

    To those of you who are unfamiliar with the story: Nehemiah is a Jewish exile serving as cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes. Upon hearing about the dilapidated state of Jerusalem’s walls, he is deeply distressed and prays for guidance. Granted permission by the king, he returns to Jerusalem and rallies the people to rebuild the city’s walls, despite facing strong opposition from neighboring enemies like Sanballat and Tobiah. Nehemiah’s leadership, strategic planning, and reliance on prayer help complete the reconstruction in just 52 days.

    This is what my playlist focuses on.

    But the backstory is even more bizarre! Ninety years earlier, the Temple was rebuilt. Ninety years! For nine decades the walls lay in ruins, leaving God’s people vulnerable, open to attack; limiting their ability to live as a community by harming their ability to look after those who most needed assistance.

    There’s a message here for the modern church. Nehemiah teaches us that when God stirs your heart, it’s for a purpose bigger than you. Through prayer, boldness, teamwork, and trust, broken things can be made whole — and God’s name is glorified.


    In a world full of brokenness (inside and outside the church), Nehemiah’s story is a call to rebuild what matters most: faith, community, and hope. But it starts with prayer.

  • Jonah

    Jonah

    My latest playlist.

    Too many people write this off as a simple story, fit only for children. They forget the fact that Jonah was a historical figure, mentioned in 2 Kings 14 – a patriotic prophet who foresaw victory and restoration of Israel’s fortunes.

    You would have thought he would have been eager to predict doom and destruction on Israel’s enemies – but instead he did something totally illogical. He tried to run away from God. A situation he explains in chapter 1, verse 9 of his story. Jumping into a boat to evade the One who created both land and sea is insane. But Jonah did it.

    It’s as if he’s declared to the Almighty, “I refuse to fulfill my destiny! What are You going to do, kill me?” This is why we see Jesus referring to the sign of Jonah. After three days of contemplating his fate, Jonah resolves that God is God, and that he must do His will – whatever the cost to his dignity.

    And What a cost! Imagine this haggard and bleached specimen, dried out and dusty from his travel inland to Nineveh, calling out that this huge sprawling metropolis will be swept away in God’s judgement.

    And then all heaven broke loose! As Jonah waited for destruction to fall; the city turned in repentance, God stayed his hand and Jonah, the great prophet was made to look like a presumptuous fool. The man who got it wrong.

    And here’s the kicker. Jonah had seen God’s mercy from that first instant when he was called to speak truth to power in Nineveh. He knew that if he spoke out, and the people turned from evil, God would spare them – spare the mortal enemies of Israel; so that when Israel turned from God, there would be an alien nation ready to deliver God’s judgement to them.

    You can appreciate his flawed thinking. “If I don’t preach, they will be swept away without warning, and my own sinful people will be safe for another generation.”

    Jonah must have realised the futility of trying to run away from his fate. After all, no-one is indispensable. God could have raised up any number of successors to Jonah and sent them to Nineveh. But He wanted Jonah. Looking back through the lens of the Gospel story we glimpse why.

  • St. George’s Day

    St. George’s Day

    The Patron Saint of England – adopted because he was seen the purest example of chivalry for us to emulate.

    Of course, I’ve curated a song – it focuses on the story we’re most familiar with, slaying a dragon.

    [Verse]
    Riding through fields of green so wide
    Armor gleam under the sunlit tide
    Banner high with a lion’s might
    Against the shadows he rides tonight

    [Verse 2]
    In troubled lands with fear so near
    A beast of legend bred from fear
    Villagers whisper ‘neath the starlit dome
    A hero’s come to bring the dragon home

    [Chorus]
    With sword ablaze and heart so pure
    He faces flames so fierce and sure
    A hero born of ground and stone
    To slay the dragon take the throne

    [Verse 3]
    Darkened skies where shadows creep
    Dragon’s roar shakes the valley deep
    Glistening scales like night’s own coat
    Saint George lunges at the foe’s throat

    [Bridge]
    Roaring clash the earth it shakes
    Steel and claws their courage makes
    Victory sweet in dawn’s embrace
    Saint George stands with a proud face

    [Chorus]
    With sword ablaze and heart so pure
    He faces flames so fierce and sure
    A hero born of ground and stone
    To slay the dragon take the throne

    For those of you who prefer St. Edmund; king, martyr and previously recognised as Patron Saint of England, I have a song praising his courage in the face of his murderous Viking captors as he refused to bow the knee to their gods.

    There’s a certain odd symmetry of a royal martyr whose banner was a white dragon on a red field, being supplanted by a princess-rescuing dragon slayer whose emblem is a red cross on a white field.

  • Happy Easter!

    Happy Easter!

    Here’s a playlist.

    For those of you who want to shout out, “Hallelujah, Jesus is Risen!” Here’s a few different ways of singing those words…

    And most important of all, have a great day. Meet with others and enjoy the reality of having a fresh start, thanks to Jesus’ death and resurrection.