Bless God -- Carman Licciardello and John Rasasco

What would be an adequate way to bless one’s Creator? It seems like trying to live out such a proposition would be a hopeless exercise on one level - my human ability -- doesn’t it? I cannot expect to ever do enough, to ever say praises loudly enough to really bring the Divine and Everlasting God what He deserves. When Carman Licciardello and John Rasasco said “Bless God”, perhaps they too wondered about this very unresolvable quandary, at least until they read some about how others, like the shepherd-king David, met this issue in various circumstances. ‘Do it with everything He’s given you’, someone might say, for after all He cannot expect anything more, and certainly not supernatural, from the mere humans that He made. Maybe that’s how David felt when he danced before God, celebrating His Providence in bringing the ark home, even if his own wife thought the scene was uncouth (see perhaps the most flamboyant example of when David blessed [praised] God in the 17^th Century artwork A Singing and Dancing David Leads the Ark of the Covenant, by Pieter van Lint). Perhaps it’s not the quality of praise in the moment, but instead the endurance in one’s praise. Carman and John had some ideas about how to spur the everyday blessing.

 

These two 20^th Century songwriters have not directly shared what they thought about when ‘Bless God’ crossed their minds in 1988 (the year the song was published). Thoughts about God’s everyday presence and His patience with us must have entered into the picture, however, if their lyrics are reliable clues. ‘For all He’s done’, ‘in unity’, and certainly for allowing ‘Christ His Son’ (chorus) to be sacrificed for us were central themes that Carman and John thought were crucial, such that they fashioned these lyrics and accompanying music to be sung multiple times. God gave His Son one time, but that was such a momentous, literally earth-shaking event (Matthew 27:51) that this singular event need not be repeated (Hebrews 10:10). That should thrill and cause me to marvel, every day, for I need to reconnect with that – just about moment-to-moment – because of my terminal condition. So do we all. The verses that Carman and John wrote suggest that they too have pondered daily (or at least on many occasions) the seminal meaning of God’s gift, and coax us to do the same. ‘In the stillness of my soul…reflect’, they say in verse one. And they seem to realize that it’s not just something that He’s done a few times, but ‘down through the years’ (v.2). He can be ‘joy’ and ‘strength’ (v.2) repeatedly, and is that something that anyone else can do for you and me? He’s ‘inside of me’, with ‘love’ and ‘power’ (v.1), and that supernatural relationship is unlike any other personal camaraderie that I lean on today. There’s a whole lot that’s still a mystery with Him in the picture, but I need not fret over that uncertainty. There’s too much evidence of Him in history and around and inside of me to toss Him aside cavalierly because of some lingering grains of doubt. What’s more sensible than blessing the One who’s responsible for you and me, and who promises to make us even better one day (1 Corinthians 15:42-58)?    

 

Could it be that Carman and John were also reading what Paul had to say as he neared the end of a letter to that group of Corinthians in the 1^st Century? Read that for yourself, and ask ‘would that make me shrug my shoulders or instead say thank you, God!’ What human being could not be affected by such a passage, one that has an almost lyric quality? Do you think Paul was possessing of madness or of the Holy Spirit? What would cause such a radical transformation of this once-proud Jew of Jews (Philippians 3:5), if it wasn’t something of God? He and others lived in the light of something that made them brave beyond their own human consciousness or ability. That’s what drove them daily, in praise to Him and in testimony to those with whom they interacted. That’s a model for you and me, about how we bless Him. It’s about taking a chance – do you have a better, more certain plan? – that what Paul learned and repeated to some Corinthians is true. Believe it will happen. Tell others, and magnify that blessing to God.   

 

See information on the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%9Cberf%C3%BChrung_der_Bundeslade_durch_den_singenden_und_tanzenden_K%C3%B6nig_David.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/Psalms

 

Bless His Holy Name (Bless the Lord) -- Andrae Crouch

Andrae Crouch took a page from a musical ancestor’s book of praise one day in the early 1970s, perhaps as he was thinking of himself in a very basic way. Who was he, fundamentally? Andrae must have decided that a centuries-old songwriter (the boy harpist, and later king David -- see the painting King David Playing the Harp [1622] by Gerard van Honthorst here) had approached this question best when he began one of his songs with the poetic words “Bless the Lord”, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! (Psalm 103:1) If a person has not found himself and cannot decide why he’s been put here on earth, Andrae had found an answer. It’s not about you when you are trying to find your purpose, but instead it’s about the One who made you. If you want to really deal with that quandary, to solve that mystery of what’s my life about, begin with Him. That’s the way a poet and king dealt with this long ago, and Andrae echoed that with a few more words added to heighten what it meant to him. Would you like to join him, this songmeister who followed in another’s steps, in order to answer the question that even a committed disciple asks and answers himself by writing songs?  

 

Andrae was so taken with his song mission in life pointing to God and His Son Jesus Christ that he formed a group and named it The Disciples in 1965, a crucial undertaking that would spawn many of his best-known songs, including ‘Bless…Name’ some years later. Although we can be certain of little specifically, other than that Andrae was reading Psalm 103 and was reading it in the King James Version (since the opening line of David’s psalm and Andrae’s song match exactly), Andrae’s purpose was as clear as David’s was. This 31-year-old 20^th Century songwriter in 1973 was doing what David had done on so many occasions, and no matter what the circumstances were. Offer Him a praise. David’s psalm begins the same way it ends (vv. 1 and 21-22) – lauding Him. Just tell about Him, which is what David did in 22 verses, and what Andrae followed suit doing in his version. When Andrae launched The Disciples, he was enrolled at Valley Junior College in the San Fernando Valley, and was intending to become a teacher, an objective he chose not to realize to completion. But, when he wrote ‘Bless…Name’, he was nevertheless kind of behaving like a teacher, pointing others to a method employed by a faith practitioner that still worked. If David had lived on for another millennia, he too could have extolled God in the way that Andrae did, by telling of His sacrifice for sin and the lordship of Jesus as the Christ. Surely, David thought of God the Father as Lord and Savior, since He had protected and extended mercy and grace to David on so many occasions. So, when Andrae borrowed David’s opening exaltation of God, and married it to verses telling of the God-Son’s death for sin’s payment, and of His triumph as Lord, he must have felt certain that David would have joined in to sing with gusto this update to his poem. Songwriters from different eras can still be of one heart, as long as it’s the heart of God.    

 

There’s really not much more that could be said of Andrae’s adaptation of David’s psalm. The verses he added on to the opening have us offering broad acclamations to God – that ‘He’s done great things (v.1); that ‘He died for my sin’ (v.2); and that ‘Jesus is Lord’(v.3). Those are three short but potent things to remember about Him. That He has accomplished those without the assent or help of you and me is of course true. And yet, He did these things and will continue to do so because of you and me. Andrae and David and the rest of us have Him, something that can never change, as long as we remember all those facets of God that Andrae’s song spells out for us. Want some more words to go deeper, in a closer look into God’s work in David’s life? Andrae’s partnership with David’s psalm gives you and me a reminder that Psalm 103 is still there in its entirety. He’s still there for me as much as he has always been there, ever since He made the first one of us. Similarly, David and Andrae’s song goes on and on and on, because He still does.   

 

 

See more information on the author and song story in this source: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006.

 

Read about the author-composer here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andra%C3%A9_Crouch

 

See information on the image of David here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_David,_the_King_of_Israel.jpg … The author died in 1656, so 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, 1931. …found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David

 

 

God Still Lives -- Alton H. Howard

 

Alton Howard was thinking about God in two ways in 1971 when he composed a declarative statement – “God Still Lives”. Alton looked around where he lived on planet Earth, and then he looked to the heavens. His fingerprints are on both, Alton said. Though Alton did not explicitly reveal what moved his lyricism and tune-writing energies that resulted in this firm statement of belief, it’s not really necessary to investigate his motives. The evidence is in Alton’s life, and what Alton expressed was something that he could also have gleaned from opening his bible and reading the first few pages about creation and imagining Him at work in the very beginning (as depicted in this work of art by Lucas Cranach the Elder, in 1564). Given the creative genius that he saw in the Creator, perhaps that is what ultimately motivated the life of Alton Howard, a man who had so many talents and who sought to reflect this indescribably great God to others. ‘Be a mirror’, might be one way of saying what Alton was up to, to show others what He can do.   

 

It’s all over Alton’s life, as a lifelong Louisianan, church elder, entrepreneur, and ultimately a communicator of God’s character to others, including in the songs he wrote and published widely. If someone said a wealthy man was blessed by God so that he could pass along those blessings to others, that would be another way to describe Alton. This translator and communicator of God to others did it through a radio ministry and church camp, but also through the songs that flowed from his inner being and into the 18 songbooks that he published or authored. It could be said that this was a conscious decision of Alton to inform as many as possible through God’s music medium about Him. Splashing across the music score what he felt about God was just a natural expression for Alton, one that he spent a lifetime exercising. It was as if he was trying to mimic in his own way the everlasting nature of the One who he could see in so many ways. If Alton ran out of ways to see impressions of Him here on Earth, he saw him in the heavens when he looked up (probably not unlike this photo of the heavens captured by the NASA and ESA Hubble telescope).

Alton saw the ‘heart(s) of…men’, and knew of God’s work among men in ‘ages past’ (v.1), and said that spoke volumes about this living God. He was also evident in nature – ‘rocks’, ‘hills’, ‘birds’, and the ‘rippling brook’ (chorus) – as a constant reminder of Him and His marvelous handiwork that excites our senses. The other three verses of Alton’s praise to Him suggest he was looking upward much of the time that he considered His being. ‘Space afar’ (v.2), ‘ten thousand worlds’, ‘the order of the universe’ (v.3), and the ‘distant star’ (v.4) occupied Alton’s thoughts and musical expression in 1971. Whether one traveled in the mind to these faraway lights or came back down to earth, Alton knew he could rely on Him to be the following: ‘righteousness’ (v.1), powerful (vv.2-3), and indeed ‘great’ beyond our ability to express it to Him adequately (v.4).

 

If we say that He is living, as Alton believed because of all that he could see, perhaps that is the best way to honor and live for Him. That means He is watching and seeing how you and I react to this pivotal piece of information about Him. Am I stuck in the day’s all-too-human events, which so often are most definitely not ‘on earth as in heaven’, as the God-Son once taught believers to pray to a living God? Or, are those just rote words? Others will say that they cannot see Him, so why pray to a God you cannot see? Indeed, He has been for most of human history hidden, physically. That was true at one time, until He came to show Himself. Does He need to show up again for you to conclude that He lives? What do you make of all that Alton has already seen?          

 

Read about the author-composer here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alton_Hardy_Howard   and also here: https://christianchronicle.org/songbook-publisher-entrepreneur-howard-dies-at-age-81/?A=SearchResult&SearchID=2809510&ObjectID=4369268&ObjectType=35

 

See here for information on the first image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Creation-Luther-Bible-1534.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 70 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, 1931. …found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_creation_narrative

 

See here for information on the second image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hubble_ultra_deep_field.jpg ….This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA and ESA. NASA Hubble material (and ESA Hubble material prior to 2009) is copyright-free and may be freely used as in the public domain without fee, on the condition that only NASA, STScI, and/or ESA is credited as the source of the material. This license does not apply if ESA material created after 2008 or source material from other organizations is in use….found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creator_deity