Let It Rise – Holland Davis

 

Distraction. Disappointment. Prayer. Surprise. Worship. If you asked Holland Davis to describe using one-word details how he coaxed the song “Let It Rise” to its fruition, that is how he might answer. The moment didn’t start out very auspiciously, though he and his bandmates were in a mellow setting on a beach in Point Loma, California (San Diego area, see postcard view of it here), a place that should have had the assembled worshippers feeling appreciative for the Creator’s handiwork all around them. Holland might add that such a moment is when God’s activity might be most apparent – when things seem to be going awry, a callout to Him can elicit a radical change that can only be attributed to the supernatural. Just focus on His presence coming into a group that wants Him to be near, maybe through the prayer of even just one distressed soul. Holland tried it out, probably not for the first time in 1997. The episode just reaffirms how God ‘inhabits the praises of His people’ (as the Psalmist David said, 22:3).

 

Holland took advantage of an opportunity for his band to guide some evening worship, but once at a beachside chapel in Point Loma, he felt that the opportunity was going downhill pretty precipitously. The band, including some new members, was stumbling a bit in the performance, and the church’s members were responding with inattention, a cycle that quickly had Holland feeling desolate. God was not being honored appropriately, neither in the music the band was presenting, nor in the crowd’s reaction. Where could Holland turn, except in prayer to the God he so much wanted to lift up in reverence and exultation? And so, the words just came to him spontaneously, a petition that turned out to be the song’s title with some additional words that Holland’s spirit formed that day. The lyrics were really those that came from deep inside his moment of despair, as he asked God to help the band and the crowd sense the divine Spirit, and to ‘let the glory’, the ‘praises’, the ‘songs’, and the ‘joy’ of the Lord ‘rise among’ them. Could Holland have really been surprised when the awkward moment evolved into something truly special, like a beauty that takes one’s breath away? He says it was a strange feeling, but Holland seemed to recognize God’s presence nevertheless. As he and band members relaxed and let the Spirit flow through them and the crowd, an uncertainty in the crowd yielded to a greater sensation, and what was going to be a bomb of an evening worship instead grew into a 45-minute elevating experience. Was Holland Davis and the band responsible? Holland remembers feeling that his only credit for the evening was trusting that the Spirit was already present, if he and the rest of the assembled would accept that God was indeed near, not far away. If a crowd gathers with the intent to praise Him, that is harmonious with God’s desire, too. Worship leaders only need to believe that, and let the worshippers know they can believe it too.   

 

What’s left after worship has been had? Perhaps that is the thought that had Holland on edge as the evening in 1997 began. How might the evening’s other plans have proceeded, if the music had not inspired genuine worship? It was a bible study night for the church, after all. Would a dispiriting worship harm a study that was meant to bring relevance of His word to them? I want to know that He can make a difference to me in the middle of a busy week, not leave me shrugging my shoulders. No doubt there might have been some in Jesus’ era who thought His life and effect was a ‘so what’. What was it Pilate meant when he said ‘What is truth?’ And yet, Jesus inspired so much passion among others – both venomous and adoring. Can you feel His passion for you? There’s something He’s put inside you, which He wants to make grow…it’s called eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11). No one should want this without Him there beside you. The alternative is too horrible, and He’s too great. Think about that if you find yourself talking to Him soon.      

 

 

The source for Holland Davis’s song story is the book “Our God Reigns: The Stories behind Your Favorite Praise and Worship Songs”, by Phil Christensen and Shari MacDonald, Kregel Publications, 2000.

King of My Heart -- John Mark McMillan and Sarah McMillan

Two words – ‘king’ and ‘good’. Those two small words would go a long way toward characterizing some lyrics that the McMillans, John Mark and Sarah, wrote around 2015 to frame how they addressed the “King of My Heart” in a personal way. And, could you guess where they had looked for those two words? Not much cryptology was necessary in this endeavor, for the ancient texts of the bible are replete with those two four-letter words; indeed, if they weren’t used to describe the Creator-God, then you could imagine that John Mark, Sarah, and the rest of us would have to do an about-face in the very fundamentals of our faith and ultimate outlook. Someday, we’ll all have face-to-face evidence that what the McMillans are saying in their song are not just some pie-in-the-sky hope-filled instincts. Faith will become sight, a once-in-a-lifetime event perhaps most closely compared to when Jesus told a blind man in Jericho that his faith had caused his sight to be given him (Mark 10:52; see the attached 17^th Century masterpiece art depiction of this miracle by Eustache Le Sueur). This man most certainly regarded Jesus as his ‘King’ and ‘Good’.

 

The McMillans don’t share just exactly which biblical passages inspired their own poetry, but given the numerous ones that mention the Lord’s kingship or goodness, perhaps it was their overwhelming sense of His nature that set in motion their production. This king happens to be different from every other one that one might meet, as this songwriting couple’s verses suggest. He doesn’t just sit on a throne, offering ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ to what He observes His subjects doing. He’s serving, metaphorically, in many diverse roles: a ‘mountain’ refuge, a refreshing ‘fountain’, a protective ‘shadow’, and a ‘ransom’, not to mention a ‘song’ (v.1). And then, He’s the propelling ‘wind’ and also a steadfast ‘anchor’ (v.2), thus able to simultaneously play what appears to be two very opposite roles.  Meanwhile, He might be your life’s ‘fire’ that stirs your passion, while also just an ‘echo’ that keeps one in touch with His influence (v.2). This God seems capable of responding to you and me in whatever way He sees we most need. Perhaps that message was the one that most resonated with John Mark and Sarah – this Lord-God is ever-present and wants you to come in whatever state you find yourself. What about good? It seems like a rather tame description for the Almighty, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t awesome, or brilliant, or some other superlative better fit this One? Could it be that John Mark or Sarah took note of Jesus’ encounter with an anonymous worshipper who fell at His feet, calling Him ‘Good teacher’? (Mark 10:17-18) Jesus said ‘only God is good’. This God needs no flowery praise, glowing phrases, nor adjective-stacked-upon-adjective to address Him. Did something in Peter’s words – that impetuous fellow, who too often was quick with his lips, who later in his life reminded believers that we all draw upon His goodness for all the example we need to live a life that’s godly (1 Peter 1:3) – speak to the McMillans in their poetic craftsmanship?

 

You met any good kings lately? Human history seems to make one frown upon reflection, because there are so many examples that make this seem like a contradiction in terms. Even the ‘good’ ones made their mistakes – David, or Hezekiah, for example, both of whom needed to pray for mercy. And, blessedly for them, this God upon whom they called was a better king, filled with more goodness than either of them. How many times does one need to say He’s good? John Mark and Sarah say it at least eight times in the space of a few minutes. I could underline, italicize, embolden, and try different fonts with that word ‘good’, or add something like extra-special, or extraordinarily, etc., etc. to it. Instead, John Mark and Sarah might advise that I just try singing the basic words along my day’s various paths. And, try getting others to say so with you – that also seems to be the McMillans’ desire.

 

 

See here for some information on the song: https://www.godtube.com/popular-hymns/king-of-my-heart/

 

See here for information on one of the authors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mark_McMillan 

Just As I Am, I Come Broken -- Sue Smith, David Moffit, Travis Cottrell

 

It’s a good thing that I’m not judged on my appearance or my behavior, because I would not come out clean, as is suggested in this ancient scene of justice. (The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead depicts how a deceased person's heart is weighed against the feather of truth….notice that feather’s truth on the right scale appears to be heavier than the heart on the left scale.) ‘We’re all dead on such a scale, unless there is mercy and grace’ – a statement that could have been made by all the authors of a hymn they renewed in 2009. Sue Smith, David Moffit, and Travis Cottrell were moved by the classic 19^th Century hymn first offered by Charlotte Elliott, and so they took Charlotte’s “Just As I Am” and added some words that build on her original confession – “I Come Broken” (as well as other conditions). They evidently were stirred by Charlotte’s words ‘I Come’, which conclude each of her poem’s original seven verses. Charlotte also had weighed herself on the ancient scales of justice, prompting Sue, David, and Travis to summarize and recap the brokenness Charlotte and the rest of us feel. Like Charlotte, they don’t just confess, but come boldly in search of God’s renewal. How do you come?

 

Though we know not exactly the specific episode that caused the thoughts of Sue Smith, David Moffitt, and Travis Cottrell to coalesce in the first decade of the 21^st Century, what they fashioned from Charlotte Elliott’s hymn is in black-and-white. Did our three contemporary writers have experiences in worship when people responded to the singing of Charlotte’s ‘Just As I Am’, perhaps even during a Billy Graham crusade, which helped spur their poetry? Do we come differently, we who are two to three centuries beyond Charlotte’s poem? Sue, David, and Travis answered that several maladies afflict us, even as they surely did in Charlotte’s time. Not only are we all ‘broken’, but each of us is ‘wounded’, ‘desperate’, ‘empty’, and ‘guilty’ (song’s refrain). Yet, these composers weren’t content to just whip themselves with cords in remorse; each of the woes they mention has an opposite that closely follows the diagnosis of the trouble. The statements ring out like proverbs: I’m ‘broken’ but know I need to be ‘mended’; I don’t want to remain ‘wounded’ but ‘healed’; my ‘desperate’ state can be abolished when I’m ‘rescued’; that ‘empty’ feeling is transformed when I am ‘filled’; and, though the scales say I’m ‘guilty’, somehow I am ‘pardoned’. Could Solomon have said it any more pithily?

 

These ‘proverbs’ make the worshipper want to shout out, with a hallelujah-like energy that testifies to how radical and miraculous God’s work is on the human transgressor’s condition. I might have been on my death-bed, but now I can run a marathon. God’s ‘welcome(ed) with open arms’ tells me that He’s just as thrilled as I am at the change. This ‘blood of Christ’ is the remedy, unique and divine, with a potency that works wonders on my condition. He alone possesses the correct formula, that’s all I need to know. Just be who I am, and admit I’ve failed. Could it be that His willing provision for me is because I’m His image-bearer? And so, when I connect with Him, I connect also with other humans I’ve never met like Charlotte, who’ve sought and swallowed the same antidote that Sue, David, and Travis recommend. Perhaps only when I meet all these other centuries-old image-bearers will I completely appreciate the scope of His magnanimous nature. He reaches anyone who comes to Him, just as they are. Just bring yourself and see what happens.   

 

This video indicates the song was written around 2009: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwlUGuzisBw

 

One author-collaborator’s biography is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Cottrell

 

See here for description of the ancient Egyptian justice scene: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Justice#/media/File:El_pesado_del_coraz%C3%B3n_en_el_Papiro_de_Hunefer.jpg