No Other Gods -- David Moffitt

 

He’s remained largely ‘behind the curtain’, at least in the internet world of the 21^st Century. Was that David Moffitt’s choice, somewhat of an outgrowth of the “No Other Gods” theme contained in what he wrote in the early part of this century? Among his music friends in the Nashville area, one could guess that David is not a guy who’s in hiding, however. And, anonymity is a characteristic that David would certainly not want God to associate with him either, and so that helps explain why he’s been writing songs that tell of his allegiance to the God of whom he writes.  Meet David Moffitt, at least the little bit that we can discover of him here, and look forward to meeting him, if not here then in the time to come. He evidently thinks it’s more important today that we know the One who’ll take us all to that meeting place.

 

There are few spare details of David Moffitt that could help an investigator find and interview him, but one would have to know that there’s just one name associated with this songwriter, a characteristic that is contrasted with what Moffitt would write in ‘No Other Gods’ that was published in 2003. David went to Belmont University in Nashville, probably where he got to know Travis Cottrell, one of the university’s notable music-performing alumni and someone with whom David has collaborated on several worship songs. David was also a worship leader at a local church for 13 years, and has written at least one award-winning (a Dove Award, given by the Gospel Music Association) song. So, he has a well-earned reputation, but that obviously was not the focus of ‘No Other Gods’. David shares some 15 names for the God he knows, so if He’s unknown to you, David wants you to meet Him, this multi-faceted Holy One. He’s the God that David must have read about on various pages of a bible – eight names in all in just his song’s first verse. ‘Ancient of Days’, and ‘Alpha and Omega’ (v.1) are just a few that tell us this is a God who’s existed forever. ‘Maker’, Creator’ (v.2)…those two evidently struck David the way they do most of us, for who else can we call on, even yell at, when our human failings and even mortality dog us? ‘God, you made me this way for what reason’? Perhaps David had heard that anguish in someone’s voice, someone who had a health crisis. The ‘I Am’ (refrain) is not someone whom I can treat like a wish-granting vending machine; He's ‘sovereign’, David recognized, a characteristic we all have to admit is a difficult one to understand and accept when circumstances seem so unfair. But, He’s also the ‘Messiah’, the One that the Father has designated to also be ‘Savior, Redeemer, and Friend’ (v.2). What could be better when the inevitability of life’s conclusion is known? The ‘King of kings, and Lord of lords’ (refrain) who also created, and therefore knows intimately the makeup of all things; the God who wants to draw me close, shield me with His love, and then save me ultimately; and this Lord who wants to make me feel secure in his identity as the ‘Rock of Salvation’ (v.2) is the only one I need. That’s just a few of the names for Him that David Moffitt recognized. Is that enough?

 

Not much else can be said of David Moffitt, but so much more could be said of God. We can look at David’s face (see the one site link below showing his likeness), but even Abraham and Moses, the great friends of God (Exodus 33:11, James 2:23), were not permitted to see His face. There’s so much more of God we’ll see someday, so that has to be one reason why David did not try to exhaust his description of Him in his song. No one can completely portray Him, so some mystery actually helps coax my drawing closer to Him. I’m just curious to see Him close up, though there are times when I should be awestruck and even petrified to observe Him. David Moffitt wants me to know He’s the only one I should consider in that way. That other god you and I might have or had in the past…is he really scary and yet loving in the way Jesus was? Don’t wait to meet the real God before you answer.   

 

See about the author here, and a picture of him also: http://www.rethink.com/content/david-moffitt

 

The author’s frequent collaborator’s biography is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Cottrell

 

This site indicates the year (2003) in which the song was published: https://www.higherpraise.com/lyrics/cool/n/7_572.htm

 

Website of the school where author attended: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belmont_University

Forever -- Chris Tomlin

 

Can someone get co-authoress credit for one word of a song? Chris Tomlin would probably say ‘yes’, at least when re-telling the story of how he was able to finish writing “Forever”, and especially since this song had lain unborn for four years since he’d first started to write it. In an instant at a summer camp (somewhere in Texas) in the late 1990s, Chris’ friend gave him the word – ‘strong’. That wasn’t the only inspiration Chris received, for he’d earlier been reading about a more ancient song than the one he was trying to write, and finding that song’s anonymous author’s words were the touchstone for what he wanted to say.  That unknown Levitical priest might also be considered a co-author of what Chris would finish writing that summer. Perhaps one day Chris and the rest of us will learn who that nameless Levite was, in a place where forever becomes reality.

 

Multiple places in Chris Tomlin’s native Texas helped spawn what was finally published in 2001 as the song ‘Forever’. Texas A&M University in College Station (in east-central Texas’ Brazos County)

was where he was reading Psalm 136 one day, and where the seed of ‘Forever’ germinated. Chris discovered that there were so many reasons for proclaiming ‘His love endures forever’, according to the poet-songwriter from 2,000 to 3,000 years ago (probably somewhere between the 9^th and 5^th Centuries BC), and how a crowd hearing all of those reasons had responded all those years before. Chris says openly that one of his typical methods for songwriting is to get input from lots of people, and this song was no different; he gathered positive feedback from many people even before it was really finished. So, one would think he rapidly concluded his penmanship of ‘Forever’, right? Instead, the song lay fallow for another four years, despite Tomlin’s persistent efforts to complete what he sensed could be something pretty special. We late 20^th Century-early 21^st Century Christian believers have as many reasons to say ‘Amen’ to that ancient psalmist’s call to devotion, as those Jewish believers did in their own time. That must have helped push Chris to persevere, and then along came Janet Reeves (the wife of the bass guitarist in Chris’ band) with the last word -- you might say 'epiphany' -- to shove the song across the finish line. Had she not been listening nearby for several days in a row, as Chris valiantly, but futilely, tried on his own to utter ‘strong’ in one chorus section, who knows when or how the song might have turned out! But, finally she knocked on Chris’ door, and as someone else has said, ‘you know the rest of the story’. And so, Chris borrowed many words from the psalm (from verses 1, 2, 3,12, and 26, and especially the refrain ‘His love endures forever’), some of his own phraseology, and lastly Janet’s one word to shape his version of why God can be praised continually, forever.   

 

Just look at all the facets of God, besides the forever and enduring love parts of Him, as Chris describes Him in what he wrote. He’s ‘good’, ‘above all things’ (v.1), and has a ‘mighty hand and outstretched arm’ (v.2), one of the psalmist’s descriptions of the Almighty that must have especially impacted Chris, since he quotes it directly in his own rendering of the poetry. He’s given all of us a ‘life that’s been reborn’ (v.2), and if that’s not enough, He’s also set the ‘rising… setting sun’ (v.3) in motion to bless us. Oh, and then there’s that ‘grace’ (v.3) part He grants, so that none of us need suffer His divine punishment. This ‘faithful’ and ‘strong’ God chose to live like one of us, and gave a part of Himself to remain ‘…with us’ (chorus). These are all essential qualities of Him who’s been around since time began, and it’s all you or I need. One guy thousands of years ago said so, and another is saying the same today. What do you say?

 

See the story in this book -- “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever”, by Lindsay Terry, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2008.

 

And, here: https://www.crosswalk.com/church/worship/song-story-forever-by-chris-tomlin-1243556.html

 

Author’s biography here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Tomlin

Stronger -- Reuben Morgan and Ben Fielding

 

“Stronger”. Even one of the writers of this song admits that he weighed in his own mind if this was the correct word for the song. Reuben Morgan and Ben Fielding evidently thought of the God-man being stronger in a spiritual sense, while conversely, He was willing to take a physical beating ending in death. In that sense He’s rather like the obviously weaker, small boy named David taking on the larger and much more imposing Goliath (see here the 19^th Century artwork of Osmar Schindler), an amazing historical episode (1 Samuel 17) that provides a physical metaphor for this battle that Jesus would unexpectedly win centuries later. Could it be that Reuben and Ben were also reading and considering what a 1st Century writer had to say on the matter of God turning upside down the conventional thinking about His death by execution? See what you think makes someone ‘stronger’, as Reuben and Ben describe it.

 

A broadcast interview of the native Australians Reuben Morgan and Ben Fielding (evidently not too long after they co-wrote ‘Stronger’ in 2007) revealed that the two friends hewed the song’s foundation over the telephone, though they did get together in person to fashion other parts of the song. It happened quite spontaneously, as they shared with the interviewer that the ‘stronger’ focus emerged in this telephonic exchange. Reuben wondered if another word – perhaps ‘greater’ or ‘higher’ -- should instead be emphasized; could that be how one of these two alternate words made its way into the song’s chorus, in which Christ’s name is ‘lifted higher’? Were Reuben and Ben also influenced by something they had read? ‘Stronger’ is a crucial word that the great apostle Paul uses in writing to some 1^st Century Christians (1 Corinthians 1:25) – God’s power and wisdom in the cross of Christ might have seemed like ‘foolishness’ compared to ‘human wisdom’, but His weakness exceeds human strength. And, He chose His method to ‘nullify’ our human standards, so that we’d ‘boast’ in Him alone (vv. 28-31). His being, His way, and His sacrifice are stronger, able to break ‘shame and sinfulness’ (‘Stronger’, v.1), transporting us through ‘storm and fire’ (v.2). Reuben and Ben may have been trying individually to write some meaningful lyrics that day before they spoke on the phone, but they arrived at the same conclusion as they shared with each other: ‘Stronger’ clicked and flowed so effortlessly, that they just went with where they were being led. Sounds kinda like what Paul was telling the people of his time; go with the One who’s proven He’s ‘stronger’.

 

Reuben and Ben also wrote some key words in a third verse to describe this ‘stronger’ being, and what He’s done. ‘No beginning and no end’ – that’s my God. Therein is His strength, a bulwark for my ‘hope’ and ‘defense’, a Being not content to leave me condemned, but to ‘save’ me through a ‘cross’ where He paid my debt. He’s always been, and always will be, so what other power can contest that? I can visit the gym and body-build to overtake others, win medals, and testify to others about my physique. But, just a few months and years later, my muscles become flab. Just ask Arnold Schwarzenegger. God doesn’t have to show me His six-pack abs or awesome biceps. He made them! And, He made me. He’s got a perpetual nature, one that I need to access in order to go where He’s living. There’s no way around that. He’s holding out His ageless, unwrinkled, eternal hand. You gonna take it?

 

 

See here for a link to the song’s story: https://www.worshiptogether.com/songs/stronger-hillsong-worship/

 

See here for brief biography of one of the authors: https://hymnary.org/person/Morgan_R

 

See biography of one author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuben_Morgan

 

See biography of one author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Fielding

 

See here for information about the album on which the song appears: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_Our_God