Hallelujah (Your Love Is Amazing) -- Brenton Brown and Brian Doerkson

 

It was not the most auspicious epiphany that brought about this song in 2000, as both of these songwriters would admit. One of them, Brian Doerkson, was actually feeling rather agitated that his visiting friend, Brenton Brown, was trying to get him to say “Hallelujah, Your Love is Amazing” on a difficult day in his family’s home in Abbotsford (in Canada’s British Columbia, see a picture of its downtown here). It was the pretty ordinary and lackluster response of Brian that left Brenton unimpressed with his friend’s spontaneous musical suggestion regarding the song’s unfinished chorus. But, what ultimately emerged in the words just reaffirmed that the musical Spirit can work in circumstances that are challenging and distracting. In fact, if He doesn’t, what’s that say about His presence in everyday life, especially when things can be pretty tiresome? It was also Brian who thought that this ever-present God idea in the praises of His people should inhabit this song. His name carries with it praise, both of these two songwriters eventually emphasized.  

 

It was a February day in early 2000, a time when one of his six children was pitching a fit, Brian would remember, and his ebullient friend Brenton entered a room in the house, all fired up about a song idea. Brenton already had the first verse, but needed a catchy chorus phrase. He must have thought Brian was pretty unfocussed and uninspired when Brian immediately responded with the song’s title words, particularly when he suggested that just repeating this phrase multiple times was the hook for which Brenton was searching. This spur-of-the-moment, seemingly inadequate idea actually said all they needed, Brian reiterated. After all, the word ‘hallelujah’ fundamentally says ‘praise God’ in its original language (Hebrew), so when a believer wants to return God’s love in adulation, what could be better than this single, potent word? Together, the two friends concocted a second verse, one that concludes by saying their invention is in fact a ‘God song’. How many times would ‘hallelujah’ be enough to offer Him what He’s owed? At least 30 times, is what Brian and Brenton must have eventually decided, if you listen to the various renditions of the song. And yet, that cannot be enough to do Him justice, either. And, the verses they constructed likewise say only a few of the worthiest things about Him – that His love corresponds to so many adjectives, like ‘amazing’, ‘steady’, ‘unchanging’, besides being like a ‘mountain’ in its ‘firm(ness), while also being a ‘mystery’, and ‘gentl(e)’ as it ‘surrounds’, ‘lifts’, and ‘carries’ the believer (verse 1). You can imagine the two songwriters may have thought of personal episodes when they said His love is ‘surprising’, as it’s ‘rising’ and ‘glowing’ from the very ‘inside(s)’ of a person, as he revels in the ‘goodness’ of this God-love (verse 2). They conclude their ode to Him with ‘Your love makes me sing’, perhaps the only appropriate way to demonstrate that this lovefest cannot be captured with mere words, but needs a music infusion.

 

Light the heart’s fuse with the love synergy you share with your Creator. That’s what Brian and Brenton coax from the believer who’s calling out to God in a song, this song with God’s name intrinsically attached to it. Is there anything He’s not done to fertilize, nurture, teach, and sacrifice for me, to secure my devotion? He’s given not just His love, but the method for lifting His name, too. He touches those He chooses with a tune-making nature and vocabulary to birth something from His own great heart. He’s the essence of life, like the nuclear core with its mass attracting electrons to orbit His magnetic pole. God is indeed the critical mass of love, for without Him there would be no ‘hallelujah’, no reason for life itself. That’s something that it seems Brian and Brenton want us to remember.       

   

The song story is found in the following book: I Could Sing of Your Love Forever, by Lindsay Terry, Thomas Nelson publishers, 2008.

See information on one of the writers here: Brian Doerksen - Wikipedia

See a description of the song’s title word here: Hallelujah - Wikipedia

For link to and information about the image, see here: File:Downtownabbotsford.JPG - Wikimedia Commons.  This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Sonicwolf at English Wikipedia. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: Sonicwolf grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

I Need Thee Every Hour -- Annie Sherwood Hawks

What kind of housework must she have been doing to inspire such words? Perhaps someone, maybe even the minister at the Brooklyn church where she worshipped who had encouraged her to exercise her poetic gift, asked Annie Sherwood Hawks this question in the summer of 1872, once her words for “I Need Thee Every Hour” were made public. They sound like someone who felt that life was empty in some way, meaningless without the Divine influence. Or was it a gift from the Holy One, a present that she would not fully comprehend for several years? Annie might have answered ‘yes’, it was both.

Annie Hawks evidently had been preparing for some time to write the words that would come to her on a June day in 1872. This 37-year old housewife and mother of three children had been writing poetry since her own childhood, and as an adult was urged to write some more, which her minister Robert Lowry liked to put to music for the enrichment of the church’s children. It was a beautiful June day, she remembered, a day like many others in which she was busy with household duties. Whether she was completely alone, or perhaps with one or more of her children likely at home as well, Annie was evidently joined by somebody more unusual – even spiritual. She described a sense of being filled with a presence, a fullness that made her ponder how life could be complete without Him. Indeed, if one believes the Creator is the source of life, Annie was asking something quite logical. As a believer, this train of thought would certainly not have been completely revolutionary to her, but its intensity and impact that day were definitely unique. She reportedly sat down and immediately composed the poem’s five verses, which she gave to Pastor Lowry the following Sunday. Her senses likely had been heightened, making her an open vessel, a result probably of her poetic nature that had been nurtured since her teens, and more recently as a consequence of Lowry’s support.  Though her acquaintances at the church would have undoubtedly appreciated Annie’s song in the weeks after it was first publicized, Annie herself would not fully value its import until many years later. She related after her husband died 16 years afterward that her poetry truly spoke to her in ways that it must have for others in similar circumstances when she first wrote it. The death’s ‘shadow’ that she described had fallen upon her was not as dark as it could have been because of the Spirit’s comforting words, transmitted through her own hands.    

Watch for those mundane moments when you might think you’re alone. One wonders if Annie retraced her experience at the moment of “I Need Thee’s ...” conception, and tried to repeat it. She wrote approximately 400 hymns in her lifetime, but this one crafted whilst in the midst of a seemingly routine summer’s day says something about God’s creative calculus. Is He deliberately unpredictable, unfathomable? I’m made in His image, but He’s the model, and I’m merely the copyist. For some, that might not be enough, but for Annie, she was apparently satisfied to play her role, to be used by Him in her ordinary day. No flashy, jaw-dropping light appeared, but for someone whose antennae was ready for reception, His tap on her shoulder and cohabitation of her spirit crafted a product that touches us believers still today. A great God doesn’t overwhelm…a submissive heart just listens to His suggestion. That was Annie.   

The following website has a brief account of the song’s story: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/n/e/ineedteh.htm

See more information on the song discussed above in The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006.  Also, see Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990; 101 More Hymn Stories, Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985; and Then Sings My Soul – 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.

See a brief biography of composer here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/h/a/w/hawks_as.htm

The Joy of the Lord -- Twila Paris

She was a 32-year woman, who reportedly was washing dishes. Does that naturally bring joy to most people? Apparently something was intertwined with this mundane activity one day in 1991, when Twila Paris pulled something from inside herself and said the “The Joy of the Lord” was present. This Arkansan (see state seal of Arkansas here) gives one a personal look at herself and the joy she has kept discovering, even just lately as described in a magazine article (see first link below) despite some personal challenges. In short, it sounds as though she found a place that has protected her…a sanctuary.  This word has been expressed in more than ways than one for her.

By the time 1991 rolled around, Twila Paris had been travelling extensively and producing Christian music for more than a decade, but what she said in “The Joy…” that year was something that had already been ongoing and would continue to play out for many more years. She grew up and still resides in Arkansas’ northwest portion, so many who know her might say home and family there are the sanctuary for Paris. It would be easy to imagine that, and see Twila decompressing one day after returning home to Arkansas from a concert tour. Just being at home, doing something that allows the mind and the body to relax in some activity’s routine, even if it’s something rather ordinary like washing dishes. She might also have been reading her bible, recalling the story of Nehemiah the governor and the priest Ezra (Nehemiah 8) as they reminded the Israelites of the Holy One’s words. They calmed the people’s grief, telling them they could become stronger through the Lord’s joy (v. 8). That must have spoken to Twila, too, centuries later. Whatever the reasons, Twila’s album that year was titled Sanctuary on which “The Joy of the Lord” appears. More recently, her husband Jack’s chronic fatigue has been a challenge for the both of them, but Twila says having the source of real joy has allowed them to endure.  Perhaps she’s re-read Nehemiah, remembering the people’s sorrow at separation, yet their perseverance through encouraging words of mentors. One cannot have too many of those, including close family, friends, and fellow-believers, as Twila and Jack have discovered (see article link below).

According to Twila Paris’ words, one might come up with the following arithmetic expressions:  Joy=Strength= Courage (verse 1); or how about this one?: Joy=Strength=Redemption (verse 2). Finally, Twila has said Joy=Strength=Trust (verse 3). Which one do I need to draw upon at this moment? It doesn’t mean I forfeit the others while I drink from one particular cup of encouragement. Their all linked together, and therefore all tied to Him. Think that could be why the cup overflows, as you might have heard someone say? Have you had anything to drink today?

Source for the story of the song: http://www.todayschristianmusic.com/artists/twila-paris/features/the-sanctuaries-of-twila-paris/

Brief biography of composer: http://www.twilaparis.com/bio.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twila_Paris

Link to album (Sanctuary) on which the song appears: http://www.twilaparis.com/albumsinfo.php?id=11