Days of Elijah – Robin Mark

If you watch the evening news frequently, you have felt some anxiety on occasion, am I right? Indeed, the world’s events seem like a great weight, for who can control them, or predict their course? One would have to be a prophet to do that, you answer. What must it have been like to be a prophet in the old earth days? An Elijah? The earth’s behavior was less well understood then, more of a mystery, holding humans in a fog as they encountered life-changing calamities, or at other times perhaps God’s favor. Earthquakes, floods, eruptions, hurricanes…all are described as ‘biblical’ events or ‘acts of God’ when we read the fine print in our insurance policies. You cannot stop ‘em, and although we’ve come two or three millennia since Elijah, we really haven’t found our way around (nor above or beyond) the earth’s fickle behavior. That was Robin Mark’s reaction in 1994 when he wrote “Days of Elijah”.

Though he’s been a Christian in Belfast, Ireland and a worship leader for some time, Mark has asked himself if God is really in control at times. The composer was watching the news in late 1994, and he admits he despaired at what he saw, for it was the year of Rwanda, when a million people perished. To call it a tragedy is an understatement, but what else can we do but cry out to God? Mark’s conversation with the Lord informed him, he says, that God is present. He calls us to be people of right-living, and trust-giving – to Him. And, though 21st Century humans may think they’re far-removed from somebody like Elijah, Mark sees him, and events in our day too, as signposts for the Creator. Famine, but also harvest opportunities are evident in our time, Mark tells us musically, and it’s no accident that they are reminiscent of Old Testament events. And, Mark’s words also draw upon the biblical imagery of bones knitting together in Ezekiel’s day to remind us that we as a church should unite, to proclaim a cohesive message of hope in the Lord. We as His people should, above all else, be worshippers, Mark says, an imperative that “Days of Elijah” proclaims as well.

To sum it up, Mark says the song gives us four directives: “….declaration, righteousness, unity and worship. I chose to express these thoughts by reference to the characters that represented these virtues in the Old Testament. It is in essence a song of hope for the Church and the world in times of great trial.” So, remind others that God is watching; He wants us to act with integrity; the Lord yearns for His people to come together; and the Holy One communes with us in worship. Hard to go wrong with those, huh?

You can read Mark’s “Days of Elijah” story in his own words, and read some about his life with the links below:

https://robinmark.com/the-story-behind-days-of-elijah/ (this is the link to the story behind the song).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Mark(this is the link to Robin Mark’s biography).