Battle Belongs -- Brian Johnson and Phil Wickham

 

Jahaziel had a message (See picture of him here delivering the words from God’s Spirit when others were afraid – 2 Chronicles 20:14-17.), and it was that the “Battle Belongs” to Him. So don’t be afraid! The peoples of God had been told that before, but it must have been the passage of time and the danger right before their eyes that made them cower once more. If Brian Johnson and Phil Wickham could have known another fellow’s name, they might also have given some credit to a tattoo artist for an eye-catching phrase, because that’s what got this pair to thinking and recalling what Jahaziel had said so long ago. Their music radars were pretty active that day, and so they didn’t miss what He wanted them to recall. You might not think there’s a battle or some trouble in your path, but we all live on a planet where things happen, and we could feel overwhelmed. Do you have a plan? Listen to what Jahaziel told an army…it’s a different kind of foxhole strategy.  

 

So, I cannot remember if a tattoo has ever inspired any of the songs in this blog – but I don’t see the word ‘tattoo’ (or ‘body-art’!) listed among my labels, so this song story has reminded me of an axiom: each song has something unique about it. And, tattoo will be a new label from this point forward. Perhaps Brian and Phil had never encountered such an inspiration before, either. In 2019, Brian saw the tattoo with words that he thought said something that could be central to a song that he and Phil were tossing around. ‘I fight on my knees’, some anonymous person had said, and actually repeated by having it inscribed on themselves or someone else’s skin. By early in 2020, this pair of songwriters had worked up the song further by using a story in God’s word to provide more inspiration. It involved a couple of people with names that started with ‘J’ – Jehoshaphat and Jahaziel. Jehoshaphat the king was set to lead his army into battle against Ammon and Moab, and he admitted ‘…we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.’ (2 Chron 20:12). Jahaziel must have overheard this prayer, and God gave him Jehoshaphat’s answer – ‘It is God’s battle, not yours.’ (v.15) So, just follow His plan, and those scoundrels will beat themselves (vv. 16-23). And, the troops actually sang another song as part of this great plan – ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever’ (vv. 21-22). As Brian and Phil saw it, the ‘battle’ and ‘mountain’ were overcome with the words of that tattoo on their hearts, and the real-life historical example of the Israelites of the two ‘J’s’ beginning their mission with prayer, encouragement, and trust. ‘Victory’, ‘beauty’, ‘empty tomb’, and 'almighty fortress' are key phrases that Brian and Phil use to counter the ‘shadow’, ‘fear’, ‘ashes’, and the ‘cross’ that can make the warrior – even if he’s God-sent – hesitate for just a second. For them, even as the coronavirus threatened the world in 2020, the ‘Battle Belong(ed)’ still to Him. Just ‘fight on (your) knees’ to begin any struggle, and you’ll see how nothing is a struggle for God.

 

Phil said the Covid time was dark, and that ‘Battle Belongs’ was like a light, for himself as well as for others. So much noise and misdirection characterized that period, Phil related, that finding the truth was challenging; amidst all of that, he remembered that the song’s words provided hope, courage that otherwise would have been overcome by the confusion of the time. That sounds like what so often happens on a battlefield, sometimes referred to as the ‘fog of war’, when smoke and a cacophony try to shroud and drown out the One who can steer us through a mess. It might be too hard to see and hear standing upright, so getting closer to the ground is perhaps as useful as any advice we could hear. Get down!...that’s what you might hear, telling you how to best avoid the bullets and other flying objects. And, while you’re down there, look up, too.     

 

 

Read how the song was developed here: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/phil-wickham/battle-belongs

See information on the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jehoshaphat_and_the_people_mourning_-_the_prophecy_of_Jahaziel.png …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, 1931….found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jahaziel .

Holy Forever -- Chris Tomlin, Phil Wickham, Brian Johnson, Jenn Johnson, Jason Ingram

 

A thousand generations, and the angels – those are phrases that really persuade the reader to use one’s imagination, because there’s just no way that any mortal has seen both of these, or anything approaching what these phrases challenge you and me to exclaim. (See the 19^th Century artwork -- Rosa Celeste: Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest Heaven, The Empyrean -- by Gustave Dore here, showing lots and lots of angels.) That is the impression that Chris Tomlin and his four collaborators -- Phil Wickham, Brian Johnson, Jenn Johnson, Jason Ingram – want us to consider in “Holy Forever”. A ‘piece of Heaven’ is what Chris says he was trying to portray with the lyrics in 2020, something he and the others must have been inspired to pursue as they read John’s Revelation or what the great prophet Isaiah (chapter 6) saw. It means taking one’s own ego and motivations out of the picture, and letting the awesome scenery drive you prostrate. Chris points out what John has already told us: this worship John foresaw will be forever. Hard to picture, right? Chris and company invite us to try, as a warmup for what’s to come.

 

God declares six times through various authors in the Old Testament that He will lavish His ‘unfailing love’ or stand by ‘His covenant’ to a thousand generations. And, how many other times do His angels make their presence known in the same writings? Over 100 times (precisely 111 times, according to the New Living Translation) -- including 24 times in Revelation alone, the most of any of the bible’s 66 books – do the writers mention these awesome beings who are God’s servants. And, the sight of these breathtaking groups is surpassed only by the vision of God Himself. Thus, that brief synopsis really sums up what these five 21^st Century songwriters would have us to see – God supreme, and those two groups of beings worshipping Him. Chris describes how he thinks of songs in two different categories – some that ask God to help us, to ‘rescue me’ with His grace; and then others that are more about ‘transcendence’, like Holy Forever’, that compel the believer ‘…to get on my face’. That’s what’s happening in Revelation. Just consider Revelation 5:11 -- Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders. Or, Revelation 7:11 -- And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings. And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God. Revelation 14:6 helps us see it all another way -- And I saw another angel flying through the sky, carrying the eternal Good News to proclaim to the people who belong to this world—to every nation, tribe, language, and people.

 

Do you think John had goosebumps while on Patmos? Reading those passages should help each of us get just a little of that sensation. Think what’ll it be like when you and I see it close-up, no imagination necessary. Jenn Johnson says the song she and the four others penned is about being part of ‘…our ultimate victory’. We won’t just be watching. We’re among His people, the ones with whom He wants to be forever. Imagine for a moment that it’s like you have a ticket to the most important sporting event in history, and you didn’t pay for it. Someone else dipped into His treasury and paid for your entry into that venue. His is the ‘highest’, the ‘greatest’, ‘above all’, so isn’t that enough reason to sing this ‘song of ages’, the one that Chris, Phil, Brian, Jenn, and Jason expect to be shouting? You don’t have the right voice, you say? I don’t either, yet! He’ll give us that too!

 

See comments by the primary composer on the song here: Faith Behind The Song: "Holy Forever" Chris Tomlin | Air1 Worship Music

 

Also see some comments here by another co-composer: Holy Forever by Chris Tomlin - Songfacts

 

 

Information on the image is here: File:Paradiso Canto 31.jpg - Wikimedia Commons…Author    

Gustave Doré (1832–1883)…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 100 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.

Great Things -- Phil Wickham and Jonas Myrin

Who was it that said ‘necessity is the mother of invention’? Phil Wickham was really not thinking as far back as this little aphorism’s first usage (perhaps in Aesop’s Fables [see the information below] in ancient times, before Christ.), but instead around 2018, some 26 centuries later. He and his friend Jonas Myrin were looking for a new upbeat song to use in the opening moments of a church’s worship service in Riverside, California (see the seal of that southern California city here), and Phil says “Great Things” was that necessary piece they happened to co-write. But, as so often occurs, these two contemporary songwriters traced back through ancient scriptures, namely those found in the Bible, to find inspiration for their 21^st Century solution. They didn’t think about awe-inspiring events in their own experiences, but rather those centered around what God has done, ones about which we all can all read and re-read to appreciate Him repeatedly. He’s still that same timeless One.

 

Phil and the other worship leaders at Harvest Christian Fellowship had what at first glance might seem like an unusual problem – they were feeling that the lively songs they had been using were becoming too familiar, maybe even stale. Hmmm, how does something positive become a negative? Phil would say that that happens through overuse, and so he gave himself the task of finding at least one more opening song that could be the jump-off point for Harvest’s worship hour. The pages and the stories within his bible gave Phil so much grist for the music mill that was grinding in his spirit, that it wasn’t long before he was struck by a common theme – and indeed the theme for a new song – that he discovered in these well-known God-protect-and lead-the people stories as he read them. He looked in Psalms for a new musical message, but also in the wide variety of historical episodes when God was someone’s rescuer or the One choosing His people to do something miraculous – Daniel in the lion’s den; David versus Goliath; the Israelites taking Jericho; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego surviving Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace; and Moses and the people at the parting of the Red Sea. Phil noted that in almost all cases, the people praised their God in words, especially in songs, in the aftermath of the incidents. He found what Mary said upon learning her role as the coming Messiah’s mother (Luke 1:46-56, and especially v. 49) as perhaps the most provocative for his thoughts. ‘…for he who is mighty has done great things for me,     and holy is his name’, Mary sang in what we know today as the Magnificat (also see this blog’s 3/16/2023 entry for the Magnificat story). Mary’s baby’s pivotal position as all of humanity’s savior speaks to all generations in the present tense, rather than to a group of people in some past event. That was enough to spark Phil’s lyric-writing muscles, although he admits his mind was still stuck in neutral at one point, until Jonas captured the right words to complete a second verse and the song’s bridge. The two’s song theme, in a sense can never wear out, because God is not yet done doing great and amazing things.

 

Indeed, Phil and Jonas, while they were thinking of what He’s done already, also want us to expectantly rejoice in God’s never-done nature, because they wrote lines like these: You'll be faithful forevermore…And I know You will do it again…You will do great things. You can travel the musical road that Phil and Jonas constructed from beginning to an end, although exactly when that end will happen is unknown, for it’s hidden to the angels and even to Jesus (Matthew 24:36 and Mark 13:32). Is that part of God’s point, to keep us in the dark? Exactly what is He up to, we might sigh, and grouse, and complain when things seem tough. That was oftentimes the reaction of His chosen people, until they witnessed Him in action – Godly, awe-inspiring, terrifying action. Phil and Jonas tell us he was, and is, and is to come, in the musical phrases they chose…and, perhaps without really intentionally trying to do so, Phil and Jonas were looking at and thinking about what John was once told (Revelation 1:4,8 and 4:8), through some visions that were no less startling than what his ancestors observed. Ready to see Him do some more mind-blowing, astounding, stupefying things? My online thesaurus is inadequate to really capture the Almighty I AM!                 

 

 

See song story shared here (beginning/ending at minute mark 4:04 – 8:12) by the primary songwriter: Great Things // Phil Wickham // New Song Cafe - Bing video

 

Also see the story here: Phil Wickham – Great Things Lyrics | Genius Lyrics

 

See information on this quoted saying here: Necessity is the mother of invention - Wikipedia

 

See information on the image/seal of Riverside here: File:Seal of Riverside, California.png - Wikimedia Commons. This work was created by a government unit (including state, county, city, and municipal government agencies) that derives its powers from the laws of the State of California and is subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act (Government Code § 6250 et seq.). It is a public record that was not created by an agency which state law has allowed to claim copyright, and is therefore in the public domain in the United States.