Hope of the Nations -- Brian Doerksen

 

He was trying to write a song, and had a brain cramp as he tried to finish it off. Then Sep 11, 2001 happened, and who could forget the images (including this one shown here, when an airliner slammed into one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City’s Manhattan district) that we all saw on television and other video screens. Brian Doerksen found his “Hope of the Nations” amidst a great terrorist tragedy, and perhaps more people than ever were open to listening to who Brian said was the source of hope. To watch thousands of people die violently no doubt changes how we humans think about life and how quickly it can be snuffed out. Where can you and I turn if this existence is so fragile and uncertain? That was the mental and emotional torment so present on that day, a reality that many of us experienced near the scenes in New York; Arlington, Virginia; and the rural countryside of southwestern Pennsylvania. What Brian wanted was to recenter our attention on another scene, one which showed the opposite of what was seared in memories on that terrible day in September 2001.

 

The scene Brain wanted to draw for people in the wake of 9-11 was in fact a face – a divine one, the only one which could possibly take the sting out of what had happened so unexpectedly in the space of two hours. Brian says he’d been thinking about writing a song of hope since 1999, in expectation of the angst many people might have felt as the turn of the century approached. Y2K had people on edge, for who could really know which computers and other electronic devices might crash as January 1, 2000 arrived, and which ones would still work? But, evidently those fears were not enough to stimulate Brian’s creativity, and his musical project stalled, though he kept trying. By early September 2001, the juices were once again flowing for Brian, allowing him to write much of the song, at least until he hit another creative block. Brian knew that Jesus was the source of hope in what he wanted to communicate, including the thought that this God-Man was needed by all nations, and yet the song remained in limbo for a few days. The tragic events of terrorism a few days hence seemed to crystallize the message in Brian’s spirit, and with newfound clarity he finished the song’s chorus section. In short, Brian said lyrically that Jesus is a ‘hope (that is) living…’ even amidst so many deaths that had horrified those in North America and around the world. Brian’s strategy was to say musically what Jesus provides for stunned people. ‘You are…’ so many things, Brian said to God in that moment. He is ‘hope’, ‘the rock’, ‘the light’, and ‘truth’ (pre-chorus and chorus). Before the 9-11-inspired chorus section, Brian had already written that Jesus is the ‘comfort (for) mourn(ers)’, and ‘Heaven’s hope (for those) on earth’ (v.1), a message that provides for those who suffer, but especially and most poignantly for people in the wake of 9-11. To know that ‘in history, (Jesus) lived and died…(then) rose to life’ cannot but speak intimately to anyone who’s lost someone close. Nothing is more important, as Brian described it, than having a God who ‘conquered fear’ by coming out of a grave that was so brutally imposed upon Him. It doesn’t matter how unfair death is – Jesus is stronger.   

 

Brian Doerksen was in a special place, a place he’d probably have preferred to not be in, in September 2001. And yet, his experience really highlights how supreme is the Creator of life. His is the last say-so, and that is something that Brian counted on as he mused about the calamity that was before his eyes. No death could hold Him down, and that is indeed a ‘light in the darkness’, capable of overcoming the gloom that had enveloped the public who were glued to horrific scenes broadcast in living color. Brian was no doubt as shocked as anyone by what he could see via his television that day, but he didn’t stay there. Imagine a day when all death is swallowed up by life, by the One who gives life. Trust in His benevolent nature, and in His almighty hand. He’s led the way out of the grave already. Get ready to follow, no matter how you went there.       

 

See the song story here: BRIAN DOERKSEN HOPE OF THE NATIONS LYRICS | JustSomeLyrics

 

Read here about the author-composer: Brian Doerksen - Wikipedia

 

See information on the World Trade Center image here: File:Explosion following the plane impact into the South Tower (WTC 2) - B6019~11.jpg - Wikimedia Commons…This image is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government, specifically an employee of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.

God Who Comes to Save -- Glenn Packiam

 

Glenn Packiam had seen enough in his native land, and then later in his adopted land, so that he could say “God Who Comes to Save” no matter where he went as he began to serve in Christian ministry in the early 2000s. He’d begun to serve in a Colorado Springs church (see the flag of Colorado Springs here) shortly after getting his ministry degree, but Glenn had been a musician for a longer period, and that was perhaps why he thought so deeply about the effects of worship and chose to write books about it, in addition to writing music. Music and worship are universal, from Malaysia (Glenn’s homeland) to the United States, but the God whom Glenn described in his music goes infinitely further than those two continents where Glenn’s experience had taken him. This transplanted Malaysian-American Christian didn’t need to travel further to make his case for worship’s power in the human experience. He could draw in his own mind pictures from history that testify to music’s potency, and that’s something to keep in mind when you read one of Glenn’s books or sing one of his compositions.

 

Glenn Packiam hasn’t really said with specificity how he came to write ‘God Who Comes…’, but one can speculate that what he said in his lyrics are likewise at the heart of what he wrote in a 2020 book he authored – Worship and the World to Come: Exploring Christian Hope in Contemporary Worship. There’s a lot of hope in why we sing, Glenn asserts, particularly when we are in seemingly unconquerable situations. Paul and Silas sang while in prison (Acts 16:25), and so much of what happens to us some 20 centuries later must be contextualized the way those two 1^st Century disciples did it – by placing an unassailable hope and trust we have in Jesus’ resurrection over top of each of us as we cope with what befalls us. It’s the main theme of Glenn’s book, and also of ‘God Who Comes…’. You hear echoes of it when he has us sing about our ‘world of sorrow’ (v.1); about ‘our brokenness’ (chorus); and about ‘human weakness’, ‘sickness’, ‘shame’, ‘wickedness’, and ‘darkness’ (v.2). But, over and over again, Glenn doesn’t bemoan or wallow in the human condition; rather, he reminds us that Jesus took on all of those human maladies. One could thank Jesus for stooping toward us, to identify as a fellow sufferer with what troubles us routinely, but there’s so much more than just a divine identification. He defeats these things. He ’…comes to save’, a phrase that Glenn uses to title the song and remind us of this fundamental truth. He's ‘rising up’ as the ‘victor’ (v.2); He’s intent on ‘bring(ing)…life again’, ‘giv(ing) us strength’, and ‘light for tomorrow’ (v.1). That’s why we can ‘follow’, ‘pray’, and ‘praise’ Him (v.1).

 

Glenn adds some of the various names of the God who comes to save, kind of like a postscript to the rest of what he offered in the preceding verses. You just might hear some of these, especially at this time of year when we are reminded of His coming as a babe in a manger. ‘Wonderful Counselor’, ‘Mighty God’, ‘Prince of Peace’, ‘Savior’, and ‘Lord of all’, Glenn recalls from what so many, including the prophet Isaiah (9:6), have said in adulation. The list of names – there are whole books regarding the many names of this God who came to save – remind us just how broad and all-encompassing is His nature. He saves me, and He can save anyone and everyone who wants Him. We all have struggles, the things that we cannot handle, as Glenn reminds us. But, we have Him, too. With this saving God, I can feel safe.

 

  

Read some about the composer-author’s musical production here: Glenn Packiam Chords @ WorshipChords.com

 

Read more about author-composer here: Glenn Packiam - Wikipedia

 

See this link for some exposition of one of the author-composer’s books re: worship: When Christians Sing of Hope: Glenn Packiam's Worship and the World to Come - Mockingbird

 

See here for information on the flag picture: File:Flag of Colorado Springs, Colorado.svg - Wikimedia Commons…This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.

Glory to God -- Steve Fee and Vicky Beeching

It dawned on this song’s primary writer while he was at a retreat. Steve Fee was apparently mulling over something while intentionally engaged in songwriting, and his heart consequently lifted the words “Glory to God” at that time in 2009. (How or when Steve’s co-writer, Vicky Beeching, contributed to these thoughts is not known, though she included this collaborative effort on her album ‘Eternity Invades’ in 2010; see the Wikipedia article link below on her and these details.) Steve might have been at a retreat, but evidently, he was thinking about his day-to-day life in north-central Georgia (in Alpharetta, which is in Fulton County…see the map of it here) when he uttered a musical prayer. Was Steve sharing his personal prayer with some others at the retreat, something about how one’s ego can get in the way of a life commitment to God? He made us, and that was on Steve’s mind, and amid any conversation that he had with others, as suggested by what he penned. What’s the best way to respond to a realization like Steve had?

 

Steve said in an interview that ‘Glory…’ was really very simple, in both spiritual and musical content, though the core of the song was ‘massive’. He came to realize something personally, and so he prayed something in the middle-to-latter part of the song that expressed a renewed devotion. Steve must have felt his own ego was getting too much attention, especially in light of whose he really wanted to be. And, that helps explain how the song lays out the way it does – beginning with the Creator and what He’s done. Steve said this Creator-God was ‘before’ He ‘spoke’ and ‘made’, and then later acknowledged that his own ‘breath’ was God’s gift to him, for a purpose that Steve repeated 20 times throughout, as the song’s title. ‘Glory to God’, Steve wanted to pledge in this prayer, and not just in the moment, but ‘Forever’, an even broader aspiration that Steve had when he composed. Steve prayed a pretty simple – though not easily achieved – prayer, contained in three lines of poetry: ‘Take my life’, ‘let it be (yours)’…’for You…your glory’, and ‘forever’. While the world about him seemed to be focused on one type of ‘gospel’ about self-centeredness, Steve was trying to say that it’s not about trying to get everything for yourself. He thought the God who created is so great, that He’s the One who’s capable of saving each of us from ourselves. Steve’s prayer, in his own words, ‘(was) what anyone should pray in life, if they’re gonna pray anything.’ This glory to God is recognizing His grandeur, a declaration someone makes when he sees himself in light of his Maker.

 

The ‘massive’ part of Steve Fee’s song began with the admission about what was going on inside of himself. And, Steve wasn’t afraid to share that, to make himself vulnerable and admit he was human, just like everyone else. None of us likes to be dependent on others for our well-being, hence the psychological phrase ‘self-actualization’ that coaxes each of us to achieve our full potential in order to enjoy life fully. What’s the completely self-actualized Christian look like? That was the question that Steve Fee was evidently examining at the retreat where he found himself in 2009. Begin with the One who put you together, is what Steve concluded. And, that deduction leads to another life-altering behavior that Steve emphasized in one word, which doesn’t really end – forever. If He made you and me, in the very image of Himself who is All-Powerful, why would we want to stop?

 

See the song story here (the 3^rd video at this link): The Meaning Behind The Song: Glory to God Forever by Fee - Beat Crave

 

Read about the primary author-composer’s band here: Fee (band) - Wikipedia

 

Read about the other author-composer here: Vicky Beeching - Wikipedia

 

See here for information on the image-map: File:Map of Georgia highlighting Fulton County.svg - Wikimedia Commons…the following statement on the image’s public domain status appears in the information: I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.