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 .

Beautiful Things -- Michael and Lisa Gungor

 

Was it pre-natal depression syndrome, a diagnosis a doctor might have offered to reassure a young couple expecting a first child? That might have been what Michael and Lisa Gungor would have heard, had they actually been pregnant at the time, about a decade into the 21^st Century. Instead, there were lots of other events outside of themselves, assailing their emotions as they tried to make sense of it all. This was in the months before they wrote that some “Beautiful Things” do indeed inhabit the world their God has created. Had the mile-high altitude affected their minds earlier, in their new home in Denver (see its flag here)? The world was a mess, and lots of their friends also had reasons to doubt the goodness of God in their own personal crises, so Michael and Lisa were asking poignantly for God to break through. And, He did…or showed that He already had.

 

The multifaceted anxieties of Michael and Lisa Gungor met up with their faith part way through the first decade of the 21^st Century, and ‘Beautiful Things’ can be seen, more or less, as the ensuing discussion that this couple must have had with each other about all that was going on. War and poverty were on Lisa’s mind during that time, not to mention several friends who were having miscarriages. Was God trying to tell Michael and her that something was amiss? Was God even watching? The Gungors wanted to have children, and yet they couldn’t help feeling apprehensive about this world. It was Lisa who began to sort through it all, and a chorus emerged about how God makes some beautiful things, even ‘out of the dust’ of the ground. And since all of us flesh-and-blood beings come from that dust, He can make beautiful things ‘out of us’, too. One can imagine Lisa and Michael looking through Genesis, the very beginning, and reassuring themselves that the Creator knows what He’s doing. Other elements of human existence, which might seem dirty or unredeemable, can likewise be transformed with God’s influence. Nevertheless, I cannot initially see all that He sees, so my doubt coexists, for a time, with evidences of Him. ‘Pain’ (v.1), and even the ‘earth’ itself (v.2) are two concrete, doubt-inducing evidences that contest God’s goodness. These things don’t just surface occasionally, either. One might say that pain and all the other difficulties on planet Earth proliferate, threatening to suffocate what is good. So, you can hear those emotions in the Gungors’ verses, those misgivings that could choke out the courage through faith that we otherwise can have. A ‘garden’ and ‘hope’ are His gifts to us, to offset – or even re-make -- the alternatives that inhabit the ‘chaos’ and ‘lost’ things. He can ‘make me (and you) new’, a realization that perhaps hit Michael and Lisa most palpably months later when they had their first child, a life He made.

 

They admit that their daughter’s arrival helped speak to Michael and Lisa about Him, so that they could see other things with His fingerprints on them. He’s capable of creating, and re-creating, so He’s able to communicate hope to me, just by being who He is. Juxtapose that characterization of Him with what His opponent wants to do. You can find it all in your bible, if you choose to look. Peter said this noxious alternative to the Creator wants to ‘devour’ humanity (1 Peter 5:8). Satan is a tempter (Matthew 4:1-10), not even stopping with Jesus. He binds people in pain (Luke 3:16), is a liar and a source for others who lie (Acts 5:3), is a masquerade artist (2 Corinthians 11:14), and the source of injustice and ultimately the lawlessness that is to come at the end times (2 Thessalonians 2:9). But, He’s been beaten in eternity (Revelation 20), so what is your choice? You want to be with our Creator of beauty, or with the beaten in a fire pit?    

 

The information for the song story is here: https://www.mlive.com/entertainment/grand-rapids/2011/03/gungor_finds_beautiful_things.html

Battle Hymn of the Republic -- Julia Ward Howe

Passion. If ever there was a hymn attached to one emotion, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” could probably meet that standard. Julia Ward Howe knew this too when she considered writing her verses (eventually six), because the U.S. Civil War was in full view, and no one at the time had a neutral perspective on its merits or the desired outcome. It was late 1861, and Julia and some travelling companions to observe Union troops near Washington heard something that was the spark for what she would write in the middle of the night, as the scenes and the sounds that she’d witnessed and the broader vision of God’s purpose among humanity coalesced in her mind. (The scene here is a depiction of the Antietam battle, which was the most passionate, bloody one day [September 17, 1862] of the war.) Do the song’s words and tune stir you as you hear it today? It’s no accident, as the background and the continuing use of this great hymn since its inception have added to the underlying meaning it has for us.

The Battle Hymn’s predecessor tunes and the way the words have been used since Julia Howe wrote them have a rich history that expose fissures and conflicts in American history, far beyond this blogger’s ability to describe. So, I have only a few signposts to underscore, and a very fine book (see it referenced below in the notes section) by two scholars and co-writers John Stauffer and Benjamin Soskis to recommend that tell the story of this hymn completely. Here’s some key words you’ll bump into as you read, regarding other tunes that preceded Julia’s composition: “Oh Brothers”, and “John Brown’s Body”. Especially the latter possesses a fanaticism about the social order that helped push the nation into war. The other was a folk tune used in religious camp meetings. Julia was attempting to add a respectability to the hymn with better words for Union troops, but that hasn’t meant the feelings surrounding the social issues in the Civil War and the episodes for over 100 years since that time have been coolly debated. She must have sensed that too, with words about seeing the ‘glory of the Lord’, a‘terrible swift sword’, and ‘fateful lightning’, all in just verse 1 (!), that throw fuel upon the flame of emotions for those who employ this song. Many socio-cultural, political, racial, and other themes (including mobilization for war in the 21^st Century, as in Julia’s 19^th Century) have played out with the Battle Hymn engineered to whatever purpose the spearheads of these movements have sought to further. 

Enough said from this corner…   

   

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990; 101 Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1982; Then Sings My Soul – 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003; and A Treasury of Hymn Stories – Brief Biographies of 120 Hymnwriters with Their Best Hymns, by Amos R. Wells, Baker Book House Company, 1945.

Also, see the very extensive history of the song in the book The Battle Hymn of the Republic --  A Biography of the Song that Marches On, by John Stauffer and Benjamin Soskis, Oxford University Press, 2013.

Also see this link, showing all six original verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/b/a/t/batthymn.htm

Also see this site for song information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Hymn_of_the_Republic