Only a Holy God -- Michael Farren, Jonny Robinson, Dustin Smith, Rich Thompson

They took their cues from what the seraphim had to say (see the image of two of them around the divine throne in this 14^th Century artwork, God Surrounded by Seraphim). The seraphim sang about a holy God (Isaiah 6), and Michael Farren, Jonny Robinson, Dustin Smith, and Rich Thompson thought about scoping that out some more. ‘In what ways is He holy?’, is the question they really wanted to answer. And so, they pursued their response with a set of still more questions, and the result of their interrogation was the title words of this song – “Only a Holy God”. What other beings do what He’s done, appear as He has, exert themselves the way He’s shown, or choose willingly to sacrifice the way He did? Why would such a unique being relate to us in all of these ways? He could be confounding to you if you really gotta have tangible, earthbound answers. This God doesn’t answer all my whys?, as Job discovered (Job 38-41). His only answer really is Himself, something that Jesus tried to tell a group of followers once (John 14:9).

 

These four musicians – Michael, Jonny, Dustin, and Rich (hereafter referred to as MJDR) – come from the City Alight music ministry in an Anglican church in Sydney, Australia, where they were engaged in 2016 in an ongoing project to develop songs that communicate bible truths via simple and yet meaningful lyrics and music. Each of the four verses of ‘Only a Holy God’ focuses on a different aspect of God’s character through three penetrating questions in each verse, answering each time with the song’s title words. True to their mission-vision, MJDR went straight to the bible as they began their quest; Isaiah’s vision gave them the spark they needed to launch their own exploration and portrayal of Him. They first centered on His authority over all creation, those in heaven and the earthbound ones, too – ‘hosts of heaven’, ‘king(s)’, and even the ‘darkness’. In verse two, they marveled at His ‘glory’, ‘beauty’, and ‘majesty’, and how he nevertheless rules with divine ‘justice’. His omnipotence, in verse three, might be terrifying to some because He can ‘consume like fire’, and yet He ‘can raise the dead’, underscoring that His omnipotence is infused not with a thirst for punishment, but rather invigoration of His image-bearers. Finally, His personal action to ‘rescue’ me (verse four) and draw me to Himself through ‘His only Son’ is so magnetic – who wouldn’t want to call such a One ‘Father’? Only a Holy God answers all 12 of MJDR’s questions. Are there others that could be asked? Certainly. And, we could then try looking at all the various rhetoric that God throws at Job’s feet, and answer Him with the same degree of humility. He’s already answered in the way that is most meaningful to me personally. He is the answer.

 

Does knowing He’s the answer make things simpler for me? Or, does it make my journey less rough? Honestly, Job still had to navigate through all the potholes and questions, and was still afflicted without really finding much solace. He just had to endure. Maybe that’s the point, in God’s plan. I don’t really discover Him without some pain; otherwise, He’s just a vending machine for my pleasure, which can be fickle. And, He’s not just sitting on a throne watching and waiting for my devotion. MJDR includes the most important part of knowing who He is. And that’s realizing that He decided to become like me, a human. And yet, He, though God, astounded His companions and enemies to become so very much more human and remain Divine simultaneously, in order to accomplish His purpose. He chose human pain and disappointment, invited rejection and suffering, and died in a way that was considered the worst a human could endure in the 1^st Century. Was he merely curious and passionate about going to the nth degree of human-ness? Why’d you do this, God? It’s a question that takes a lifetime – His and mine, joined together – to pursue. Musing about Him and myself is the point of life. That seems like what MJDR was doing for all of us.  

 

Read the story behind/comments about the song here: https://cornerstonerbc.com/worship/only-a-holy-god

 

Read about the CityAlight ministry in Australia here: About | CityAlight

 

See information on the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seraphim_-_Petites_Heures_de_Jean_de_Berry.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… found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seraph

 

Praise to the Lord the Almighty -- Joachim Neander

 

Joachim Neander wrote this hymn that was published when he was 30 years old while he was in Bremen (see its flag here), and could it be that he knew he was dying of tuberculosis? Perhaps. It also would not have been unusual for Joachim to think of his destiny, and with whom he would be sharing eternity someday. Thoughts of one’s mortality might call forth the melancholy for some people, but evidently not in Joachim’s case. In one sense, he had already been wallowing in the depths earlier in his life, but then he stepped onto a higher plane. Could we say that no one was better prepared for what happened to Joachim in 1680, when he went home forever? With what he wrote over his short three decades of life, one might conclude that he was preparing during the last several years of life for what eventually happened; and, he recorded his thoughts for us to examine and prosper from centuries later. What would you want others to hear from you, years from now? 

 

It’s said that most of Joachim’s hymns were high praise works, including this one – Praise to the Lord, the Almighty – that resembles Psalm 103 in one important respect. Joachim must have felt as David did, that God whom he served deserved many more than one ‘praise the Lord’ phrase in his musical poem. Dozens of psalms contain praises to Him, but Psalm 103 has no less than seven throughout its 22 verses that are like bookends for what David had to share (three in vv. 1-2, and four in his concluding thoughts, vv. 20-22). (Only Psalm 135, with no less than 11 praises for the Lord in it, has more.) Could that be why Joachim’s hymn contains seven verses in its original form (though today’s hymnals may have just four of these verses), each beginning with a Praise to the Lord! ? Joachim’s bloodlines probably also helped him stay in touch with whom he should be extolling, for it’s said in several sources that Joachim came from multiple generations who wore the same name and were preachers, perhaps as many as four previous generations – his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great grandfather. So, when the youngest of these Joachims was coughing and suffering from tuberculosis (TB) at such a young age in the 1670s, perhaps he knew deep inside that his mortality was not some far-off prospect. It was, in fact, nearby. It’s not known what lead to Joachim’s illness, but his habit as a young man was to wander through the wilderness of the Dussel River valley, composing his music as he went exploring oftentimes through caves in the area; might this custom have been one way for him to isolate himself from others, avoid enclosed areas and the increased vulnerability to this infectious malady? He reportedly held services in the open spaces of this valley as a pastor, a scene that also reminded him of God’s creative nature, giving him very obvious stimuli to praise Him. The valley where he walked was actually later named for him, in German called Neanderthal (Neander valley). Bones later found there in the 19^th Century were believed initially to be of an early hominid – aka proto-human. That’s another story…Thank God that the Neander we can appreciate from the 17^th Century left something more significant than bones for us to consider!

 

Joachim was also a fellow that had a wake-up call as a young man. He reportedly ridiculed preachers and worshipping people as a teenager, but heard one preacher (Theodore Under-Eyck [alternately -Eyke]) who affected him deeply as a 20-year-old, spurring him to turn his life toward God. And so, Joachim would spend the next decade – tragically short, by human standards – praising the one he’d scorned previously. Perhaps Joachim felt like another who had a great awakening as a young man, a guy who went on to travel so widely and write so much of the New Testament for us to consume 20 centuries later. Paul had been Saul, and still thought of himself as the ‘worst sinner’ (1 Timothy 1:15-16), the same Saul who had berated, chased, and watched Christians being executed. But a person can turn his life around, if prompted to do so. Joachim Neander was one who followed Saul/Paul’s model, 16 centuries later. It’s still a good, effective model, and Paul and Joachim still have words to share.            

 

Information on the song story was obtained 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; and Then Sings My Soul – 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.

 

See the author’s brief biography here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/n/e/a/n/neander_j.htm and a longer one here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Neander

 

See all seven of the original verse lyrics here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/p/t/t/l/pttlta.htm

 

See information on the flag of Bremen here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Bremen.svg …This image is in the public domain according to German copyright law because it is part of a statute, ordinance, official decree or judgment (official work) issued by a German authority or court (§ 5 Abs.1 UrhG)….found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremen

Be Exalted, O God – David

 

David was the anointed, but was in a hazardous circumstance. And yet, he found reason to lift words of praise to Him, a portion of which Ken Young (and others, undoubtedly, with their own versions) has relished in “Be Exalted, O God”. David’s hideout was a cave (perhaps the cave at either Adullam, shown here, or at En Gedi), so the incident was either still ongoing or David’s memory was still fresh, and even repetitive in nature for this fugitive whose life was in danger for an extended period before his enemy was vanquished. So, this shepherd-and-eventual-but-not-yet king was panting out of desperation, and yet feeling for not the first time that his Protector-God was listening. Trust, and a certain belief that He was greater than any earthly foe David faced, was at the root of his poetry. Where else could he turn?

 

⁹ I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. ¹⁰ For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. ¹¹ Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. Nothing sums up David’s state of mind on this occasion better than his own words, what we know as the last three verses of Psalm 57. In at least one of the episodes when Saul was so very close to his prey – David -- in the back of a cave, David and his men observed Saul enter the cavern, and their skin must have had goosebumps (1 Samuel 24). Could Saul have been any more vulnerable, his adversaries probably gloated? David thought about it, and indeed did sneak up toward the king. But all he did was cut off a piece of Saul’s robe, apparently as a way to prove to Saul that he’d had the chance to kill him and yet did not. After all, Saul was his father-in-law, and more importantly to David, he was the 1^st king that God had chosen for the nation, although David was anointed to replace him. God Himself would decide when and how Saul would be moved out of David’s path to the throne. After he left the cave, Saul heard David call out to him, and he turned to hear David tell him all about what had happened in the previous few minutes. Showing him the piece of the robe, David appealed to Saul’s conscience, with success as Saul wept openly and repented of his murderous jealousy, at least for a time. David apparently felt Saul’s change of heart was genuine, and agreed to treat Saul’s family and his name with respect, even after Saul’s departure from the earth. It was a pledge that David honored. David was often angst-ridden, especially when it came to Saul’s anger, but he left the matter in God’s hands. The contrast between the king and the next king could not have been any clearer.      

 

David was in so many ways like the rest of us, including this blogger who wears the same name. He felt the hot breath of his enemies, and called out to God in frustration on many occasions. Just read the very next psalm in your bible, Psalm 58, if you think you can stomach hearing what David wanted God to do. There’s no praise of God, just vicious vengeance that David sought. I have to admit, that one resonates a bit truer with my own feelings more often than I’d like to admit. Leaders, as the target of David’s cursing words, are so newsworthy in today’s world that I often have to remind myself that position and power invite attention…it’s not that anyone is trying to taunt me. It’s just news, and I am not obligated to consume every bit of it. And, it isn’t as personal for me – no one is throwing spears at me, really – as it was for the other David who lived some 3,000 years ago. That David had a danger within eyesight and yet could laud God who was in his corner at the same time – that is pretty amazing. Perhaps David had matured, had experienced God’s prevailing influence in his life despite the whirlwind about him enough times to say ‘thank you, you are my great God’, no matter what transpired. I think I have some more growing up in my future….what this other David said once is a good start.  

 

 

 

See information on the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adulam_cave_of_khureitun_1880.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. … 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 70 years or fewer… {{PD-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States….found inside  this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Adullam