Be Exalted, O God – David

 

David was the anointed, but was in a hazardous circumstance. And yet, he found reason to lift words of praise to Him, a portion of which Ken Young (and others, undoubtedly, with their own versions) has relished in “Be Exalted, O God”. David’s hideout was a cave (perhaps the cave at either Adullam, shown here, or at En Gedi), so the incident was either still ongoing or David’s memory was still fresh, and even repetitive in nature for this fugitive whose life was in danger for an extended period before his enemy was vanquished. So, this shepherd-and-eventual-but-not-yet king was panting out of desperation, and yet feeling for not the first time that his Protector-God was listening. Trust, and a certain belief that He was greater than any earthly foe David faced, was at the root of his poetry. Where else could he turn?

 

⁹ I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. ¹⁰ For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. ¹¹ Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. Nothing sums up David’s state of mind on this occasion better than his own words, what we know as the last three verses of Psalm 57. In at least one of the episodes when Saul was so very close to his prey – David -- in the back of a cave, David and his men observed Saul enter the cavern, and their skin must have had goosebumps (1 Samuel 24). Could Saul have been any more vulnerable, his adversaries probably gloated? David thought about it, and indeed did sneak up toward the king. But all he did was cut off a piece of Saul’s robe, apparently as a way to prove to Saul that he’d had the chance to kill him and yet did not. After all, Saul was his father-in-law, and more importantly to David, he was the 1^st king that God had chosen for the nation, although David was anointed to replace him. God Himself would decide when and how Saul would be moved out of David’s path to the throne. After he left the cave, Saul heard David call out to him, and he turned to hear David tell him all about what had happened in the previous few minutes. Showing him the piece of the robe, David appealed to Saul’s conscience, with success as Saul wept openly and repented of his murderous jealousy, at least for a time. David apparently felt Saul’s change of heart was genuine, and agreed to treat Saul’s family and his name with respect, even after Saul’s departure from the earth. It was a pledge that David honored. David was often angst-ridden, especially when it came to Saul’s anger, but he left the matter in God’s hands. The contrast between the king and the next king could not have been any clearer.      

 

David was in so many ways like the rest of us, including this blogger who wears the same name. He felt the hot breath of his enemies, and called out to God in frustration on many occasions. Just read the very next psalm in your bible, Psalm 58, if you think you can stomach hearing what David wanted God to do. There’s no praise of God, just vicious vengeance that David sought. I have to admit, that one resonates a bit truer with my own feelings more often than I’d like to admit. Leaders, as the target of David’s cursing words, are so newsworthy in today’s world that I often have to remind myself that position and power invite attention…it’s not that anyone is trying to taunt me. It’s just news, and I am not obligated to consume every bit of it. And, it isn’t as personal for me – no one is throwing spears at me, really – as it was for the other David who lived some 3,000 years ago. That David had a danger within eyesight and yet could laud God who was in his corner at the same time – that is pretty amazing. Perhaps David had matured, had experienced God’s prevailing influence in his life despite the whirlwind about him enough times to say ‘thank you, you are my great God’, no matter what transpired. I think I have some more growing up in my future….what this other David said once is a good start.  

 

 

 

See information on the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adulam_cave_of_khureitun_1880.jpg... 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 its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or fewer… {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States….found inside  this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Adullam

Blessed Be Your Name -- Ken Young

 

They had succeeded in their task, and God had blessed them mightily. So, all was good, right? If Nehemiah and the people he governed, who had returned to the land God had given them centuries earlier, had felt satisfied and merely celebrated after completing the wall around Jerusalem (see a depiction of that effort here), we might have thought that was actually pretty reasonable. And yet, these people of Nehemiah’s day felt convicted, and offered a prayer of confession and devotion. Ken Young and his Hallal music ministry turned their attention to how this group of Israelites was led by Levites who began this prayer with the stirring words “Blessed Be Your Name” that over 2,000 years later roused Ken’s spirit. The message of this episode evokes an attitude that should resonate for any generation – don’t forget Him and get complacent about the source of mercy and grace upon which you stand.

 

The people of Nehemiah’s era had been in exile in Persia for years, and were blessed with an opportunity to return to their homeland and rebuild a wall and make the city of David secure, a task they completed despite foreign opposition. The taunts and plots of Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem (see Neh. 2:19; 4:1-7; 6:1-16) were persistent, and yet God protected his people through Nehemiah’s wise leadership. It must have been a reminder of how this faithful Yahweh had been present through all of their history, not just in this latest episode. And so, they prayed with this in mind as they marked the successful conclusion of their mission. The Levites who prayed ardently to God basically recited Israel’s history of rescue by Him, but also their ancestors’ subsequent and repeated departures from His covenant with them. It was time to own up to what had brought them to this post-exilic point (sometime in the 5^th Century BC), and to recommit to His way. The first verse of Ken Young’s echo of this prayer is a virtual word-for-word praise to Him that the Levites raised that day (see Neh. 9:5-6), as they stood on the shoulders of what God had done from them. Ken’s second verse reads like a summation of what the Levites said in the rest of their prayer – remembrance, confession, and a pledge of obedience (see Neh. 9:7-10:39); this 1993 version of this prayer wrapped up what the Israelites said in portions of two chapters (Nehemiah 9 and 10, comprising some 44 verses), with three brief sentences that said roughly the following: Lord, You are ‘awesome’, ‘endur(ing)’ – in other words, patient --, and all-‘see(ing)’; and You have ‘warn(ed)’ us repeatedly (four times in Neh. 9:26-34), and this time we will ‘obey’. The Hebrews certainly had experienced punishment, and also His forbearance.

 

Can any of us identify with what the Jewish race had endured up to Nehemiah’s day? What about history since that time? We’ve probably all seen horrific pictures of the Holocaust’s effect – concentration death camps, showing some survivors with little more than skin and bones, staring at the cameras with sunken eyes, or other gruesome images showing emaciated bodies piled up like cordwood. Perhaps those pictures in the last century make Jewish suffering more fathomable for those of us who’ve suffered little comparatively. But we all need rescue, whether we admit it or not. Was there some recognition by Ken and Hallal Music that this was true for themselves, perhaps in some episode that made this Levite 5^th Century BC prayer reverberate 24 centuries later? Look at you own mortality honestly for a moment. Is any one of us immune from trouble if He’s absent from our corner? Don’t get to the endline and look back wishing you had uttered a prayer like Ken and some Levites have spoken. There’s still time to do that today.        

 

Read about the 20^th/21^st Century songwriter’s music ministry here: https://hallalmusic.com/about/

 

Read the background of this song-prayer here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Nehemiah

 

See information about the image here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Building_the_Wall_of_Jerusalem.jpg …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, 1931, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. See this page for further explanation. …found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Nehemiah

Mighty God -- Ken Young

 

Ken Young had been in touch with God for many years, but something spurred his musical imagination once again in the 2005 timeframe. The Youngs had been Texans for quite a while, but Ken and his family – not without some uncertain moments – had made a move to Nashville just a couple of years earlier, so could this big change have allowed him to catch a new vision of the “Mighty God”? Lots of new faces, new experiences, never-before-seen vistas – those are all things that one must embrace with such a move, and Ken would probably tell us that he knew that when he and his family were considering such a change. A big God knows it all, and He’s ready for anything. He’s just waiting to see how far you and I will go, especially when we cannot see. Ken’s poetic words suggest he saw himself near his Lord, ready to imitate Him, though not without acknowledging how he felt standing in the towering shadow of the One he was trying to follow. Ken fairly admits in the words he penned that such a sensation is not a one-time episode – and that a follower must know Him intimately, and yet cling to this fearsome God.

 

Just precisely what circumstances were on Ken’s mind as he shaped ‘Mighty God’? The short answer is not forthcoming, though we have some clues. (If Ken or one of the other Youngs reads this and wants to respond, please do!) Ken shared in 2022 some of his remembrances of that period in a sermon-podcast (see the link below) some 20 years after he and his clan moved their Hallal music ministry to the Nashville area in 2003. Some of his own family expressed disagreement with this adventure, so that must have weighed somewhat on Ken and Marca (Ken’s wife) as they packed and headed in a northeasterly direction to central Tennessee. In the podcast, Ken also calls out joyfully members of the church where they settled, so perhaps there were experiences with them that played a role in Ken’s thoughts. God can provide a family of faith, no matter how many question marks a move entails. Ken’s poetry is very engaging, in that it tells one that He’s a BIG God, as we try to mimic Him in our own small way. This is a repeating pattern in all the facets of human life, as Ken reminds us with all the various contrasts he draws. He's the sunshine, and I'm a candle (v.1); while He’s a mountain and me a hill. He's also an ocean, I'm a river. It’s an admission of the human angst, when Ken says this river is winding and swirling as it tries to achieve stillness. Canyon and crevice; heavens and a star; and thunder contrasted with a whisper (v.2). Just how small would we feel if He actually spoke to us audibly?  Fire and ember; eagle and sparrow; lion and lamb (v.3) – they all remind us of the vast nature of Him, versus us who weakly try to emulate Him. And yet, He wants us within His embrace.

 

Perhaps the really biggest part of Him is His heart. Even the prodigal son (Luke 15) – arrogant and unappreciative in his attitude – was not too far outside of this Father’s shadow. Ken must have gathered that too, if you notice in his lyrics what he doesn’t say. None of the big things in Ken’s words overwhelm or belittle the smaller things. This Father doesn’t turn away from the sorrowful son, saying ‘Look how much time and money you’ve wasted, you bum!’ Jesus didn’t tell one criminal while hanging on a cross ‘too little, too late, fella’; He told him paradise awaited (Luke 23:43). How mighty is this God? Ken tries to facilitate our comprehension of this, but he’d probably concede that there’s only so much we’ll understand before seeing Him face-to-face. God is one-of-a-kind…in three persons, however. In fact, if you’ll let Him, He’ll come right inside, helping you get in touch with His big heart. That’s the only way to be with someone this big and powerful, who won’t try to crush you at the same time.  

 

 

 

Here’s some brief biographic info on the author in last decade-plus : https://www.linkedin.com/in/young-ken-80550675?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.yahoo.com%2F

 

The first minute of this podcast indicates the author-composer was in Franklin, Tenn’s Fourth Avenue Church of Christ in the 2003-2011 period, after a move from TX where his Hallal ministry and work as a worship minister had been since its inception: https://www.fourthavenue.church/ken-young-wholehearted/