Talk about one’s own words convicting you…that must’ve been
what Ray Overholt was thinking in 1959. His song “Ten Thousand Angels’ seems
rather unique, with a message about devotion and the order in which events
transpire in a composer-believer’s life that are opposite of what one might
imagine. It must have been like hearing someone else speaking to him, yet
hearing words that he’d become so used to acknowledging as his own, when he
listened like he’d not done before as a 35-year old. What would that be like,
and to whom would you give credit for the song if you had been in Ray
Overholt’s shoes?
One might say that Ray Overholt must have had an epiphany
that transformed his life in the late 1950s, except that this special time probably
started weeks in advance of ‘the moment’, and then went on for the rest of his
days here on earth. This singing cowboy had been entertaining in nightclubs and
on local television for several years, yet had people in his life who were
drawing him toward God. He knew something was missing, and something – or was
it someone -- made him decide to write a song about Jesus. To get familiar with
his subject, Ray read a bible account of Jesus in the garden confrontation with
the Jewish authorities who sought His life. The twelve legions of angels that
the Messiah-man mentioned to Peter (Matthew 26:53) caught his attention
especially, and a modified version of this phrase became the familiar refrain
in his ode to Jesus. (Maybe Ray also thought of a scene in which an angel did
come to Jesus’ aid…see this picture of such an episode in Gethsemane.) It was
something that Overholt said he’d not heard before, this capability that Jesus
chose to relinquish. It’s also interesting that he wrote about this while still
frequenting the nightclub scene in Battle Creek, Michigan, plying his vocation
as the singing cowboy, engaging in casual “hillbilly” gospel, and yet standing
outside of a commitment to the one about whom he was singing. Until, at least,
one day at a church performance, where he listened to a message after singing,
and then something clicked for Ray. Was it the speaker’s message, or maybe was
it that his own song’s words had begun to dawn on him too? From that moment on, Overholt’s life purpose
changed, and for the next nearly 50 years, he spread to others through his
music the message that he’d accepted.
So, who gets the credit for converting Ray Overholt? The
speaker at that church in 1959, and probably his own family members who’d been
praying for Ray no doubt were influential. In a strange twist, perhaps some of
the wayward characters who occupied the nightclubs where he used to sing also
pushed this fellow toward something more meaningful. What about the song’s
development? Was the Spirit working through Ray Overholt to speak to him, with what
he might have assumed were words he wrote? Those legions of angels…think maybe
some of them might have been pulling or pushing Ray into that church that day
in 1959? Hey, maybe some of them are still at work!
Information on the song was
obtained from “The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns
and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006, Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc.
See these sites for further biography: http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2008/09/christian_singersongwriter_ray.html
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