It might alternately
be called ‘Floyd’s Song’ because of the circumstances surrounding its genesis.
That’s the subtitle that Lanny Wolfe gave to the words and the music for
something he wrote back in the 1970’s (about 1977) for an event where he and
his group were waiting to join in a celebration. Sure, Lanny and his friends
had been asked, so their attendance at the church building dedication was not a
surprise, but when Lanny heard a small but distinct voice tell him some words
for a new song, that was unexpected (or, was it really?). “Surely the Presence
of the Lord” was born on the spot as the Lanny Wolfe Trio prepared to sing, and
the way it’s been used since then makes one think God must have had more than
one episode in mind when he whispered the words to the composer that day.
Lanny Wolfe was
certainly struck by how “Surely the Presence of the Lord” worked its way into
his being the very first time, perhaps because of the multiple incidents over
the following decades in which it played such a memorable role in his and
others’ lives. The minister’s name at the church in Columbia, Mississippi was Floyd
Odom, and he’d invited Lanny and his group to sing as the members of the church
there marked the completion of the church building. So, Lanny must have thought
that Floyd was the reason for the song’s origin - -without that moment and the
gathering of joyful people eager to thank the Holy One for His work, maybe the
song would not have come about. Indeed, Lanny tends to remember lots of the
Trio’s songs with subtitles that say they are some person’s song…perhaps his way
of saying that songs inhabit us personally, not just events or places in time. Lanny
says the song’s words came quickly, such that he didn’t have the chance to run
through any chords or even tell his fellow musicians, Marietta Wolfe (his wife
at the time) and Dave Petersen, what had just popped into his head. So, he
taught it to them the same moment the assembled church members heard it, with
just the notes and flow of the song in his head. Lanny says it worked because
there were people there, not just pews
and stain-glassed windows. He wanted to be in them, not the building. And, that’s
been the song’s recurring theme in at least four other episodes in many different
circumstances, which Lanny relates in the book More Than Wonderful that he’s
put together to tell his song stories.
The other episodes range
from a personal one-on-one Midwestern U.S. incident in which someone’s life was
in danger, to a megachurch in China where the song was a celebration sung in
many languages. It’s been transmitted to countless people on a television
broadcast, but also used in private family gatherings to shepherd a dear family
member into eternity. How varied are our
people-centered experiences, but how common is the foundation that we believers
have? That’s what Lanny Wolfe is communicating in the words he composed that day
in Columbia, Mississippi. He’s present where His people are, be they just one
or two, or perhaps many thousands. And, he comes during our many emotions. Just
like Job, I can worship even though beaten down (Job 1:20), or I may instead be
in a festive spirit like David (2 Sam. 6:16-21), though it offends others. I
just know He’s inside. Who could contain what is surely there, Lanny says?
Biographical
information on Lanny Wolfe is from this website:
See this
site to obtain the book “More than Wonderful”, where the story to the song is
found: http://lannywolfe.com/
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