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.

Worthy Is the Lamb – Anonymous Angels

‘Many angels around the throne-- ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands’ (Revelation 5:12). Can anyone really imagine that? And, how about the sound this many beings make? Do the math, and see that it works out to 100 million angels, at least! (A multitude of angels is likewise shown in this 15^th Century masterpiece work of art, Assumption of the Virgin, by Francesco Botticini, in which he envisioned three hierarchies and nine orders of angels.) To say this scene would rock your world, visually and audibly, is an understatement, and John the beloved apostle was just beginning to receive the vision that God wanted him to convey to others. Witnessing this in person was a unique and undoubtedly overwhelming episode for John; perhaps it was so surreal that it was difficult for him to believe, frankly, for it was a heavenly vision from the Creator that was meant to encapsulate the meaning and culmination of all life. John’s vision is drawn to the focal point of all human existence -- someone called the Lamb. “Worthy Is the Lamb”, this multitude shouted, as they responded to another group and urged on yet a third group of beings. If this Lamb is in the spotlight, how should I respond? That’s what makes the angels’ song meaningful, showing me to how I can respond appropriately. It’s a scene we might think of as a 1^st Century happening, as well as a future event. But, the song can be sung today, too, allowing us to weave between past, present, and future verbs to see, hear, and respond to John’s vision.

 

This angelic song, which was adapted to music by Don Wyrtzen in 1973, is really one of three parts, something like a call-response song. ‘Worthy Is the Lamb’ seems to be both a response and a call song, because it is interspersed between two other songs. John heard a new song about the Lamb’s worthy state sung by four living creatures and a group of 24 elders (5:9-10), and that evidently inspired this vast army of angels to respond with their own worthy ode to the Lamb (v.12). Can you imagine the echo, amplified beyond heaven itself, so that a third group -- every creature in heaven and on earth, under the earth, and in the sea (5:13) -- was called to reply with their own words of reverence for the Lamb? The three-part song began in heaven, and was so magnificent and thunderous, that it created a wave of singing everywhere by everyone. That’s synergy, of a Divine origin. We cannot talk to these angels, nor to their cohorts in the first and third chorus groups, so what would we be able to say about their motives for singing, except that it was and will be worship. Their eyes were on the Lamb, this animal that sounds harmless enough. One might think so without the further description that John provides. This Lamb was one that was sacrificed, so there’s probably evidence of wounds and blood, and yet this Lamb wasn’t and is not dead today. It is definitely different, with seven horns and seven eyes to represent Godly spirits sent into all of the earth. And, He does something very noteworthy, an act that apparently sparks all of this music: He retrieved a scroll, as the One uniquely capable of breaking it open and revealing its contents. And then, the next 17 chapters of John’s Revelation unfold in all of their apocalyptic grandeur.

 

So, Don Wyrtzen and the rest of us are called to join in as part of that third group who’ve heard the angel army’s song fall upon our ears from heaven. Will anyone be able to ignore this, like when Jesus comes with a loud command (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)? It’s early in John’s vision, before humans are judged, so will all who’ve ever lived, including both those who acknowledge God as Lord and those who do not, be part of the group that’s in this third chorus? Maybe I cannot say that with certainty, but He must want me to be sure of this: I can choose to join in; I don’t have to be left out of His kingdom. I want to be on the same side as all of those angels singing ‘Worthy’. From what John says, the resonance of their singing will likely be noticed like nothing else ever has been. Perhaps it will be as undeniable as the sun that rises and spreads its rays, whether I want them or not. Prepared or not, this worthy song will be sung to the Lamb. Ready?     

 

See information on the adapter/music writer: Don Wyrtzen | Hymnary.org

 

Read here about Call and Response music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_and_response_(music)

 

See here for information on the image of the angels: File:Francesco Botticini - The Assumption of the Virgin.jpg - Wikimedia Commons. 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. {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States.

 

You Alone Can Rescue -- Matt Redman and Jonas Myrin

 

Matt Redman’s few words to explain why he wrote “You Alone Can Rescue” include one very significant word, one which anyone who’s ever lived needs to accept in order to live forever with the Maker of all life. Salvation. Countless books, videos, songs, and works of art (like the one shown here, Allegory of Salvation, by 16^th Century artist Wolf Huber) throughout history have attempted to describe the import of this transaction. In trying to define it, none have really been equal to the task, for this one-word deal was something over which even the Lord Himself agonized, when He considered what was necessary to accomplish this. To say it was a stress-inducing time for Jesus (see Luke 22:43-44) would be a gross understatement. No one had ever done what He was about to do, and its value is underscored in that He did this for all time (Hebrews 10:11-14). What other one-time deals have purchased so much?

 

Could it be that co-writers Matt Redman and Jonas Myrin were thinking in the same vein when they first penned and polished their thoughts about salvation (shortly before, or in 2008)? It’s such a ‘churchy’ word, this salvation that is only rarely spoken outside of a religious context. In an interview, Matt says he and Jonas were looking for something fresh, an up-to-date way to thank God with a new salvation song. Was part of this freshening objective accomplished by replacing this seminal word with another – rescue? Alternatively, they could have said redemption, escape, recovery, or deliverance (all synonyms for salvation, according to this Word document’s query function), but rescue seemed to fit what they were trying to say. Rescue implies that someone has been in danger, and that a trusted entity has reversed the situation for the imperiled. Escape likewise implies that a dangerous condition has been reversed, but not necessarily through someone else’s action. Matt and Jonas could have said redemption, deliverance, or recovery, but rescue is more pithy (fewer syllables). Just how dangerous was my condition, and why was Jesus’ intervention so necessary? I had something like a disease, apparently, for which I needed ‘heal(ing)’; it was accompanied by a ‘shame’ with a deep-sea-like depth (v.1). The song’s title words say ‘You (God) alone’ has the answer, my ‘rescue’ within His grasp, because only He can dispense the ‘grace’ that goes deep enough to find me; I’m in a ‘grave’ leading to ‘death’, otherwise (refrain). He bridges a ‘great divide’ by way of His great ‘love’; I’m desperate, because this separation threatens to keep me ‘far away’ (v.2). Matt concludes his few thoughts by saying he and Jonas thought of ‘You Alone…’ as a simple song, with a bridge section that says one thing, the only thing that I, as a fallible human, can do in that moment when I’m saved: ‘Lift up…(my) eyes’, to see the ‘Giver of Life’. Will any words be adequate at that moment in Eternity, when my rescue is finally completed?   

 

There’s one other significant word in this song by Matt and Jonas: Alone. That was the one that perhaps troubled Jesus’ spirit so much in the garden, that He had to do this by Himself; even His closest earthly friends could not stay awake to help Him in this dark moment (Matthew 26:38-45). He was to be left ‘forsaken’, even by His Father (Matthew 27:46, quoting Psalm 22:1) while His body was about to expire. What’s that like, to be God, and yet be alone? He must not much like it, for He made you and me in His very image (Genesis 1:27), and then noted that it wasn’t right for man to be alone either (Gen. 2:18-23). If I’m like Him, then He and I are alike in our mutual desire for companionship. He alone rescued, so neither He nor I need be so lonesome anymore.          

 

 

Matt Redman - You Alone Can Rescue - Popular Christian Videos (godtube.com) (comments on song at 1:17 – 1:22)

 

Read about the principal songwriter here: Matt Redman - Wikipedia

 

Read about the other songwriter here: Jonas Myrin - Wikipedia

 

The album on which the song appears: We Shall Not Be Shaken - Wikipedia

 

See here for information on the artwork about Salvation: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Allegory_of_Salvation_by_Wolf_Huber_(cca_1543).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. {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States.