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

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 .