Glorify the Lord with Me – David

He was running for his life, away from home, and suddenly was filled with an idea that popped into his head on the spur of the moment. And, how must he have felt when this kooky notion actually worked? We can read David’s thoughts, rather than try to imagine them, as he records his feelings in Psalm 34’s first three verses, which have been put to music in “Glorify the Lord with Me” by Ken Young. David was still a youngster really, but with followers and a reputation belying his age, due in large measure to his defeat of the giant Goliath (see the 1625 masterpiece by Tanzio da Varallo here). Nevertheless, he might have seemed like a young punk to some people, namely the king who kept him on the run until his own death. Yet, David wouldn’t act like a guy who necessarily looked for a way out of this chronic condition…how come?

David was really at the beginning of a journey as he scurried to Gath following the threats from King Saul. He was perhaps in his late teens or early 20’s, and was the anointed future king. He was already a hero, bathed in the glory he’d earned in battle. Yet, his was also the heart of a poet-musician, with a harp as comfortable in his grasp as a sword. He won others’ hearts with his own heart, even calming the jealousy of Saul for a time with his melodies. He listened to the Spirit’s voice inside himself, obviously. So, as he jumped from the frying pan (Saul and his home in what would later be called Jersusalem) he found himself in the fire in Gath, where another king who knew of this youth alarmed David. He must have thought he’d be safe there when he chose it as his escape hatch, only to quickly surmise the opposite. That’s when he reacted with one of the more unorthodox behaviors of his young life. ‘Act like a nut’, something whispered in his brain. To a guy used to gracefully wielding a weapon or a musical instrument, this must have seemed like a desperate ploy, yet he obeyed. It worked! With froth running down his chin, David’s escape hatch opened again, showing that God’s rescue can emerge in a most eccentric way that defies reason. You think that’s by accident? If it had been a more conventional method, how might even the most devoted follower have greeted the result? This was one of the first getaways for this fugitive-poet, who’d experience so many more confrontations and providential rescues that he must have indeed felt he was blessed even while being chased.  God could be counted upon in the most dire circumstance, with a method quite unique to His nature.

One wonders if Saul ever heard the words that David composed in Psalm 34. It’s not too much of a stretch to say that David’s trust in God solidified that day in Gath, perhaps more than ever before. It was significant for him, since he put together words to remember the moment. Is it too much to suggest that David played his life over the next several years to rediscover moments like that one in Gath? He was hounded by Saul through many episodes, yet David sought no end to his adversary’s life, even when he had opportunities (1 Samuel 24 and 26). No, David’s obedience to his divine Protector was true, even when it didn’t make sense to his cohort. Maybe the insanity act in Gath had crystallized something for him about life and its Creator. He is also Controller, Preserver. That realization could make someone bold, fearless even to a fault. “..extol the Lord at all times.” You’re not crazy for believing this, but you are if you don’t.

The Biblical background used in the above is obtained in the New International Version Study Bible, general editor Kenneth Barker, 1985, copyright The Zondervan Corporation.

There Is No Condemnation -- Paul the Apostle

Was he thinking these words might be a song someday? The words that Paul wrote were certainly a joyful exclamation, as he proclaimed “There is No Condemnation” in the mid-1^st Century, but he was no songwriter. The words don’t even rhyme! He was well-known for his travels throughout ancient southeastern European continent and the difficulties he’d endured as he delivered the message. But, could he have suspected that the people to whom he was writing would finally meet him as a result of an even more challenging episode? This guy was really convicted with the words he wrote, and fearless of his future, seemingly. And yet, the words came from a heart that was struggling mightily, a human yo-yo.

The great apostle who was named was Saul when born in Tarsus (current-day southeastern Turkey) was uniquely prepared as God’s tool by the time he thought about visiting Rome, some 50-55 years after his birth. He was a Hebrew believer, but from outside of the Holy Land, giving him a link to both Jews and non-Jews. He’d been a believer in the Christ for about 22 years, though much of what he wrote, even at this time, tells us he was still fighting uphill against his disappointments as a follower of the Lord. How can a guy who’d travelled on three missionary journeys still feel inadequate? Paul’s recorded thoughts that immediately precede the words of this song are some of the most challenging and tormented that we read of him. That group of words describes a man tossed to and fro on waves of a moral struggle. Some of us contemporaries call it the ‘do-do’ chapter of the Roman letter, or maybe you’ve heard it described as Paul’s ‘Romans 7 gap’ – an account of a fellow who wants to do what he seems unable to do, somehow. Certainly this man might have had reason to say these words some 20 years earlier, when his virulent opposition to Christianity just a few years before would have still been fresh in his memory. His Jewish upbringing, legalism at maximum pitch, still rang in his ears, perhaps. ‘…for the law…’ and ‘..from the law..’. You can sense he knew from where he’d come. To have been on the other side of his conversion by a mere 22 years, could he have felt this salvation in some sense was by just a whisker’s edge? Maybe, if he’d been trying to earn it. He could count two decades on the right side, three and a half decades on the wrong side. How many had he arrested or killed, versus how many had he led to safety? If he used this calculus, he had no hope. For Paul, though, he knew Christ blotted out his balance sheet and the accompanying tick marks in the plus and minus columns.

He was writing to teach the Romans, who he’d not yet met, what he knew about this faith’s fundamentals. Other groups to whom he wrote were people who’d he’d already visited. Not the Romans, who he needed to greet in written form initially. So, he wanted them to understand who he was, and what he believed. Could some of them be legalists, like Paul once was? Paul wanted to visit them soon, so he could imagine what he wanted to say in person to encourage them, probably. ‘I’m an up-and-down guy, but I know I’m saved, despite the fight in which I find myself’. He’d be arrested and suffer through a thorny journey before making it to Rome in the next few years. So, Paul was used to being nicked, and that wouldn’t change. But he felt free. That wouldn’t change, either.       

No story is known for this song, but the Biblical background used in the above is obtained in the New International Version Study Bible, general editor Kenneth Barker, 1985, copyright The Zondervan Corporation; and the books The Apostle – A Life of Paul, by John Pollock, Doubleday and Company Incorporated, 1985; and The Life of Paul, by F.B.Meyer, editor Lance Wubbels, Emerald Books, 1995.

Come Into His Presence – Anonymous

This song had one author whom we now know, but at least one other author whose identity we know not. The original author preceded the 20^th Century one by probably at least 2,000-3,000 years, if not many more (perhaps as far back as Moses). So, what must these poets-composers have been thinking when they encapsulated their thoughts in “Come Into His Presence”, a brief but meaningful chorus? Lynn Baird is the 20^th Century author, who might have remained anonymous except for a chance encounter some 10 years after he walked through a wilderness in Oak Creek, Arizona (see an overhead picture of it here), where the song popped into his head in the summer of 1976. The sum of the intentions and emotions of a worshipper who approaches Him is one of gladness, according to Lynn and his ancient psalmist-songwriting brother, an unusual attitude compared to how we often see mere humans who enter His presence in Biblical history. So, is this a mature or instead an unrealistic thought?  And, were Lynn and the ancient psalmist on the ‘same sheet of music’, as the old phrase goes; were they actually thinking of the same thing? Think it over before you mouth these words the next time.

The ancient psalmist was a Jew, and Lynn Baird was obviously a Christian, separated by many centuries. The original words of the psalmist, minus the last line that lifts the name of Jesus, may have come from any of the Levites, tabernacle or temple worship musicians, or even Moses, or perhaps David, spanning an approximate 1,000-year period – from as far back as 1,500 B.C (Moses’ time) to 300 B.C. (when the Psalms were collected as a set by temple worshippers, in the post-Exilic era). Perhaps its contemporary form is closest to Psalm 100, which is thought to be the conclusion of one group, Psalms 93-100, most of which are called “orphan” Psalms – no author identified. So, perhaps the entire group was composed by the same anonymous source? His purpose?: to call fellow believers to the corporate worship. This writer must have had several encounters with God in life and in worship, perhaps to include awe and fear at first, mingled with delight and gratitude as he grew in his experience with Him. The second author-composer – Lynn Baird – was taking a hike through a desolate Arizona desert-like area, some two to three millennia later, when he says the God He worships just gave him the song in a moment of solitude. Lynn wrote the song on whatever he could find in that remote area, and then played with it soon thereafter for just his own ears to hear. He admits that he wasn’t exactly convinced it would work, so he filed it away until about a year later when he played it for the musical group with whom he ministered. Their optimistic feedback persuaded the whole group to offer it to the church, and in fact they sang it for the next several years there. Imagine Lynn’s surprise in 1986 when a friend happened to mention that a new song tape by the music publisher Integrity had been recently introduced, which included the song Lynn wrote! Like the ancient psalmist, Lynn Baird too must have had his own encounters with God, including probably at some point reading Psalm 100 and thinking how great it was that the God the psalmist lauded was now a Savior who had ascended and who awaits His people in heaven. Lynn didn’t re-write the original song, but built upon it – a theme that Christ himself delivered. Perhaps one could say that Lynn had captured this example by his Lord, as he thought about his own song-writing effort here.

He said, ‘Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’ (Luke 4:21) He didn’t throw Isaiah aside, did He? He read it with an understanding and passion those people had not observed before. That’s what we do today – and what Lynn Baird did in 1976. They have a light that shines further than the original worshippers could see. Do you have a glimpse of what David, or Moses, or Asaph, or one of Korah’s sons saw, when you read their words? One might think a second composer is hijacking the prose when he adds words to what was initially penned centuries before. Plagiarism, you say? Jesus did it too, when he recalled one at his own death (Psalm 22), giving it new meaning. Think of what a Psalmist was saying, and what he would say if he knew what we, 21 centuries after He ascended, now know. You cannot avoid Him. And, as He’s shown, I can still use words from long ago, even as I think of Him. He makes it all new. More Psalms await! Make like Lynn Baird, and see if you can contemporize one!

The song story is known only through the book “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever”, by Lindsay Terry, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2008.

The Biblical background used in the above is obtained in the New International Version Study Bible, general editor Kenneth Barker, 1985, copyright The Zondervan Corporation.