Seek Ye First or Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God is a Christian song based on Matthew 6:33. It was written in 1971 by

Karen Lafferty Karen Lafferty (born February 29, 1948) is an American Contemporary Christian musician from Alamogordo, New Mexico. Lafferty graduated from Eastern New Mexico University and unsuccessfully attempted to join a Campus Crusade for Christ musical ens ...

after a Bible study on the verse at

Calvary Chapel Calvary Chapel is an association of evangelical churches, maintains a number of radio stations around the world and operates many local Calvary Chapel Bible College programs. Beginning in 1965 in Southern California, this fellowship of churc ...

, and has become one of the most familiar

praise song Contemporary worship music (CWM), also known as praise and worship music, is a defined genre of Christian music used in contemporary worship. It has developed over the past 60 years and is stylistically similar to pop music. The songs are fr ...

s, included in many recent hymnals. The original version only included a single verse with a refrain of

alleluia Alleluia (derived from the Hebrew ''Hallelujah'', meaning "Praise Yahweh") is a Latin phrase in Christianity used to give praise to God. In Christian worship, Alleluia is used as a liturgical chant in which that word is combined with verses of ...

s, which can also be sung in

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...

with the verse. Other verses of anonymous authorship have been added based on Matthew 7:7 and Matthew 4:4. It is sometimes included in Christian children's song books.For example, it is number 207 in Bobb, Barry ''All God's People Sing.'' St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1992, 316 pp., which is a children's songbook.

References

{{reflist Contemporary Christian songs English children's songs Contemporary worship music 1971 songs

See also

References