Dayenu (It Would Have Been Enough) -- Anonymous Jew

 

They were remembering, and they were feeling grateful. That helps sum up what some anonymous Jewish people were doing and how they felt about themselves and the monotheistic God their ancestors had taught them to honor. At the center of this remembrance was something they began to sing to say ‘thank you’, something called the “Dayenu” – “It Would Have Been Enough”. (See here the musical score of the song that has been sung by Jews for over 1,500 years.) They’d been rescued from slavery, and so every Passover meal was an opportunity to reconnect with their own history and renew the faith their people had been practicing for centuries. Re-dig the well, so to speak. How would a people feel about God if others took this song and adapted it for another, so that they added another layer to the story of human-to-God relations? Some believe that’s what the origin of the story is all about – that this Dayenu  is a response to another song. What if the cycle repeats again, so that a third song is then generated? That this has occurred over such a long stretch of time says something about the God who is the object of this phenomenon – He doesn’t grow weary; and, neither should those who follow Him.    

 

The words of the Dayenu are recited in some episodes of the series The Chosen, including by the 12 Apostles in season five’s fourth episode (The Same Coin); and, it is then modified in the same episode by the first female disciples of Jesus, so that they expressed how they felt about Him. The evolution of this song may include something called the Improperia, which one Hebrew scholar (Israel Yuval) believes inspired Jews by the Middle Ages (and probably even before then) to compose the Dayenu in response. The Improperia (also known as Reproaches or Solemn Reproaches) has been used in Catholic liturgy on Good Friday (Jesus’ crucifixion day) to vocalize how Jesus remonstrated the Jews who had brought Him to that ignominious moment. How ungrateful they were, in other words, to crucify the God who’d rescued them from Egypt! Feeling this censure spurred some Jews to compose Dayenu, apparently; its 15 stanzas/verses recount how these rescued Jews were indeed grateful for His redemption from Pharaoh and guidance to Canaan. The first 10 verses/stanzas in particular recount each of the acts of Yahweh in their escape and guardianship, and each verse begins with ‘If’ and ends with the phrase ‘it would have been enough’. The last five of the stanzas/verses recount the other profound gifts He’d bestowed on them – the Shabbat (Sabbath); leading them to Mount Sinai; the Torah that He gave them, beginning at Mount Sinai with the 10 Commandments Moses communicated to them; the journey’s end in the Promised Land; and the Temple, the center of their worship life. Movingly, the makers of The Chosen series have the women who follow Jesus compose and recite their own version to say how they feel about Him, in the manner of the Dayenu.  There’s seven ways they express, which I won’t try to describe – but here’s a link so you can watch the women’s Dayenu:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZp9k_ZFgwg

 

What would you say in your own Dayenu to God? If He had chosen to do just one thing that you could not discount, would that be enough for you to worship and follow Him? How about giving you life, beginning in mom’s womb? Or, how about the blessings of a family and home in which you were raised? Maybe it was that first big job after college? (That one’s on my list!) How about having Christian friends to share your ups and downs? Or, living in a land where you and I have so many blessings that they cannot be enumerated? Here’s one we all share: no matter what happens to me physically from this point on, I will be raised anew someday. Yeah! You see, He could have given you and me far less, but just look at how vast are His gifts. Each one of these is worth an Amen, in fact even more than the seven-fold Amens that we sometimes sing, and even 70 times seven wouldn’t come close to covering it either. Just try saying one every day you live. Perhaps that’s what He’s after.  

 

See information on the song here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayenu

 

See information on a song that might have helped inspire the Dayenu: Improperia - Wikipedia

 

See information on the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dayeinuscore.PNG The following statement is associated with the public domain status of the image: 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. The image can be found inside this document: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayenu

You Are Good -- Israel Houghton

 

This songwriter must have first heard the foundation for this song, really the fulcrum for his life, from his mother. The moment in San Diego (see its flag here) in 1971 that most influenced Israel Houghton’s life happened before he was even born, but is it possible that he might have heard or detected some noteworthy words though the umbilical cord while still in his mother’s womb? There were other words like “You Are Good” that he later adopted as his own life’s theme when his purpose became clear. His life's start, even before his birth, was not very auspicious, but that part of his story must have made the bounty of his life by the time he reached 40 years old seem so much sweeter. Don’t ever forget the pit where you might have been, except for the charity of an anonymous person, someone who was just a willing vessel for the God who is good. Israel hadn’t forgotten, and so he composed something so that would make it impossible to overlook what had happened four decades earlier.  

 

Israel’s first name emerged from what his mother began to read along a lonely street – it was the gift of a bible from a woman she’d never met, someone who just thought this young eight-months pregnant woman needed God in the worst way. She kept seeing ‘Israel’ in this book, following her submission to Him on Carlsbad Avenue that day, and so his name and Israel’s direction were already in progress. His parents’ cross-cultural union (Israel’s biological father was black, his mother was white) had disintegrated, but his new stepfather’s work as a church pastor, and his mother’s musical background (she’d been a concert pianist) gave the one-year-old Israel lots to build on. His mother’s parents had tried to convince her to abort the unborn fetus within her, a fact that some mothers might have chosen to conceal from their offspring. But it was just one more startling ingredient within Israel Houghton as he approached 40 years old, one more reason to say ‘thanks’ to God, over and over in 2001. Using Psalms 100 and 124, Israel created a way to vocalize how much he appreciated the path he’d been blessed to take, certainly not something he could have chosen for himself as an unborn child and then as a youngster in California. But he was grateful not to have been an abortion casualty, and Psalm 124 helped him find what he calls ‘an internal platform’ in his role as a worship leader; it’s an attitude that, as David penned, “If it had not been for the Lord, who was on my side...”. That’s what motivates Israel, who uses some brief words from Psalm 100 to express in ‘You Are Good’ his gratitude. It’s not a complicated affair in ‘You Are Good’, but rather repeated phrases directed toward the Lord, including the song’s title words, and that His ‘mercy endureth forever’, and that all ‘nation(s)’ and ‘tongues’ from all ‘generation(s)’ can praise Him. Israel invites all others to join his celebration of what has transpired. He’s evidently said it for himself so much, that he now solicits multitudes of other people to join him, so that his otherwise solitary praise might be magnified properly to advance the name of the One who can save. He can do, and will do, for countless others what Israel’s life has already represented in one small episode.

 

Being saved can take on a wide variety of looks. To calculate it, you can begin by taking a world census, and that might get you close to how many ways God can save. And by imagining that, you’ll see just how good He really is. Then, multiply that across all of human life’s presence here on Earth…how many people, and how much time would that portray? It’s just way too much to process. But, the last of the Apostles got to see something like that, when he writes of the multitude that was before his eyes (Revelation 7:9; 17:15; 19:1 and 19:6), a sight and a sound that must have given him chills. That is the home of this good God. Imagine the cosmic salvation scene that awaits. Seems like Israel Houghton already has.   

 

See some information on the author-composer here: Israel Houghton - Wikipedia

 

See biography of the author-composer here: http://www.integritymusic.com/artists/bio/israel.html

 

See the song story briefly here: The Story Behind the Song You Are Good | PraiseCharts

 

See Israel’s story here also: Israel Houghton: An Intimate Portrait of Worship | CBN

 

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