Trinity Song -- Sandra McCracken

 

She was listening for Him. While walking on a beach in Portugal (see its flag here), Sandra McCracken says she wrote “Trinity Song”, even as the rhythm of crashing waves and her own steps metered and focused her mind on His three-person character. She found a simplicity and a power in what she heard that day; could it have been like the moments when other God-seekers have bent their ears to hearken to His whispers? It’s a rare commodity in our tech-consumed world, to seek silence. What is the normal human reaction when somebody whispers something that you cannot quite comprehend? Speak up! And yet, the God-seekers we meet in scripture did not dare say that to Him – note what Elijah (1 Kings 19:12) and others (Job 4:12-16; 26:14) said when they heard His voice faintly. That’s a picture of Sandra, as she directed people to listen for Him in 2016.

 

Silence was not a fad with Sandra, as she explained in several forums. It’s a lifestyle, a search with a goal to enter His space and receive His thoughts more intimately. She evidently had lit upon several biblical passages to spur her quest for a Godly silence; these included what ancient wisdom-writers (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2, Psalm 46:10, and Psalm 65:1) had concluded was true, but only if one heeds the advice. Be still, say little or nothing, for even in that silence, He can be praised. And so, Sandra thought that approach was how one might more deeply appreciate the parts of Him that even believers find murky – namely, the concept of the Trinity, the three persons of the Godhead. Whether Sandra’s Portuguese beach venue was just a coincidence, or instead a definite plan to find the Holy Troika in solitude, she doesn’t say. But something happened, and Sandra didn’t waste the moments trying to sort out how or why it had transpired – she just absorbed the time. She says she could imagine the three persons ‘danc(ing)’, and perhaps He was feeding her willing spirit with the sound of the waves and the pace of her own steps, which were the ones He made for her, we could say. Her own words were immaterial; only His mattered. Thus, she took a page from her own experience there to imitate for the song that was already in her head about Him in the three persons she’d just heard. Only a few words, repeated to draw the worshipper closer and closer to Him, were necessary. Say His names – Father, Son, and Spirit – and what He provides – Holy Communion. Alternately use a synonym for this Trinity – Three in One – to approach Him reverently. And then solicit what He is only too willing to provide – peace, an invitation, and holy love. That was the uncomplicated formula that Sandra apprehended on a beach in Portugal.

 

Sandra knew she had found something, and upon returning from the beach, she immediately recorded it. Perhaps because she felt it was the three persons of the Trinity, she wondered if harmony in three complementary voices would work in this embryonic composition. Some people might find what she’s accomplished too simplistic, but Sandra felt that space is where He can be encountered. He is the Omnipotent, but amazingly He doesn’t force Himself on you and me. I have to be a surrenderer. I must believe that what He brings me is so much greater, purer, and healthier for me in this world, that I am willing to cast aside my other stuff to get what He wants me to have. Less is more. Heard that one before? Gotta embrace that concept, because that’s what’s awaiting you and me – I’ll take nothing with me and instead inherit everything that He’s been prepping for me. It’s a good idea to start working on that less and more thing now.       

 

Read some of the author-composer’s thoughts on the song here: https://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/Sandra_McCracken__A_songbysong_rundown_of_her_Gods_Highway_album/58907/p1/ …and here…https://markedministry.com/2016/11/04/song-stories-sandra-mccracken/  … and here also: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sandra-mccracken-on-how-to-wait-well/

 

See information on the image of the Portuguese flag here:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Portugal_(official).svg …This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or fewer. 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, 1930. {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States. The image may be found inside this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal

We Will Feast in the House of Zion -- Sandra McCracken and Joshua Moore

 

Was something troubling the writers or people they knew? The lyrics that Sandra McCracken and Joshua Moore penned in 2015 indicate that if the answer was ‘yes’, then they had been reading from various ancient scriptures for solace and encouragement. “We Will Feast in the House of Zion” was how Israel’s most faithful servants of the Lord God reassured themselves, through a remembrance of His past relationship with them and what these same afflicted people prayed He could do for them in the future. Some of their history included exile to another land, a situation that left the people longing for a joyous return to Zion, the land God had given to them. (See the 1903 illustration The Land of Zion, by Ephraim Moses Lilien, which shows the glow of the land off in the distance, which the people of God ached to inhabit once more.) The thoughts that Sandra and Joshua put on paper remind us that we often are in straits that menace us, even to the point of death. We call out and seek His protective presence once more, as His people have done over and over again.  

 

Since Sandra McCracken included the song ‘We Will Feast…’ on an album entitled Psalms, we can presume that much of the inspiration that she found, apparently with Joshua Moore’s collaboration, was from within that ancient Hebrew songbook. Particularly, Psalms 22 (verse 29) and 126 (verses 2-3) offer words that Sandra and Joshua could have borrowed to celebrate with ‘feast(ing)’ and to recall the ‘great things’ He has done for His people. Other various prophets or biblical visionaries like Isaiah (30:19; 43:2), Joel (2:21), Jeremiah (Lamentations 3:22), John (Revelation 5:5), and Solomon (Proverbs 7:9) wrote with words that these two 21^st Century songwriters seem to echo. What parallels to Israel’s history existed in Sandra’s and Joshua’s world that helped stimulate what they wrote? That’s a mystery, though any number of circumstances in our modern world so often make us feel as though a gap between the Lord and ourselves has formed. One thing is certain: He hasn’t moved; it’s always we who have strayed away from Him. ‘Fire’ and ‘flood’ may threaten us (v.1); or we feel surrounded by the ‘dark of night’, making us ‘afraid‘ as we look for the ‘dawn’(v.2); and finally admit that our trouble stems from a broken ‘vow’ to Him (v.3) – the trouble is therefore so often self-inflicted. Sandra and Joshua weren’t ready to sit down immediately at the feast; instead, they had to acknowledge that the dangers, using the phrases of their faith’s ancestors, were there. It’s clear that Isarel and we, many centuries later, still experience anxiety, even as we believe in God’s ‘strength’ (v.2). It’s been an ongoing issue for us humans -- ‘from the garden to the grave’ (v.3) --  that McCracken and Moore remind us hasn’t changed between the very beginning of human history until today. But, imposing as these perils have been and continue to be, they cannot defeat God’s rescue operation.

 

We’re not always feasting and rejoicing, feeling restored and protected, for in Sandra’s and Joshua’s world, there are things on the opposite side of the ledger. Their verses even begin with the difficulties, those things that most often, frankly, make us call out to our Protector and Redeemer. It’s just that human nature and daily life work out that way. Struggle almost seems necessary, and in a way, they do seem to make the eventual feast taste that much sweeter. That’s a lesson from real-life experience, from the history we can read of His people, and from this song that Sandra and Joshua have brought to us. Notice that the feasting is always the conclusion of the matter, the refrain in the song. It’s not an accident, is it? We couldn’t trust God and aim to be with Him if that wasn’t true. It’s worth singing and reading every day, that maladies might upset me, but I can count on the end being a reverse of that. He’s the reason, and He's preparing the meal in His house for me. Read John 14:2-3 and Revelation 19:6-9, and see if that whets your appetite!

 

Read about one of the authors here: Sandra McCracken - Wikipedia (see 8^th paragraph re: Psalms album)

 

This site indicates the song is part of the Psalms album: SANDRA MCCRACKEN - PSALMS ALBUM LYRICS (songlyrics.com)

 

See information on the sketch here: File:Lieder des Ghetto 11.jpg - Wikimedia Commons…This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1929, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. See this page for further explanation.