A Shield About Me – Donn Thomas, Charles Williams

 

They were natives of Georgia and Kansas, and presumably crossed paths in or around 1980. We might also guess that Donn Thomas (the Georgian) and Charles Williams (from Kansas) were both reading from the same set of texts when they collaborated to write “A Shield About Me”, drawing on the poetry of the famous Israelite King David, one anonymous writer, and perhaps even God, for their inspiration. What was it these two 20^th Century poets-musicians were facing that prompted their own coordinated thoughts? Could they have also been drawing on the moods and events that were in progress for others surrounding them? Something drew their attention to ancient verses, something that they thought spoke to peoples across the centuries trying to live with the things that just won’t go away. What is it about troublesome issues that I cannot resolve? Am I too dependent on what ‘me, myself, and I’ can control? What does someone do, or where can one turn when the realization dawns that my control is really not mine? ‘Better start hunting for the source of real control’, someone might advise.  

 

 

Donn was apparently the one who learned of God’s protection, His shield, at an early age, making one think that his may have been the encounter that provided a spark for the song that he and Williams later wrote. He had an illness (spinal meningitis) that doctors said was terminal at the age of nine, and yet he recovered. His mother’s prayers and a call to ministry that Donn said he heard delivered personally from God were the major factors that he would tell us allowed him to survive. A friend (LaVoughn, later his wife by 1972) also provided encouragement that reportedly was a key to his recovery. Although Charles had no such obvious and momentous life-threatening event in his early years, his musical skills were honed early and often, such that one might say God was likewise preparing him for what was to come. His experiences in high school under the guidance of two instructors were the stepping stones to performing with many noted musicians, as well as his entry into music ministry in multiple venues in the Kansas City area. Donn’s musical career was also guided with help, like Charles’, and he eventually produced albums and likewise grew into formal music ministry in his native area. The poetry the two men accessed for ‘A Shield…’ reflected their deep and abiding reliance on scripture. Both of them likely knew of David’s psalms (3, 5, 7, 18, 28, 59, and 144), in which this poet-king called out to his Divine Shield in one episode after another. An anonymous poet (Psalm 91) and even God’s own testimony (Genesis 15:1) could also have spurred Donn and Charles to mimic their poetic predecessors. Something in both their experiences spoke to them and said He was ‘a shield about me’, and ‘the lifter of my head’. This ‘glory’, they felt, was Him as their ever-present protector, the One whom they lauded with a recurring ‘hallelujah’.  

 

A shield says two things, when I use it, that Donn and Charles must have implicitly recognized. I can expect something to test me, even try to destroy me. And so, I may know that I’m not strong enough to counter this threat, if I am wise – or scared – enough to admit it. Then, I can either cower or call upon my Protector. Donn and Charles, drawing upon their own experiences and those around them, must have on more than one occasion reasoned with their hearers and fellow worshippers that using the Shield is the only option that makes sense. I cannot stop what is coming, namely health challenges and eventually life’s end. He’s real, and this universe’s testimony and all those who’ve staked their lives on His truth are firm, reliable evidence of Him. He’s got the shield. Will you use it?

 

 

 

Biographies on the two authors are here: https://hymnary.org/hymn/LUYH2013/382

 

Some background documents and scripture references for the song are here:  https://hymnary.org/hymn/LUYH2013/382

 

Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus) – Chris Rice

 

Was he undecided at first, and then later thought the title should be self-evident? Chris Rice was apparently working as a youth and young adult worship leader in the early 2000s, when he spelled out a simple message to this age group – Jesus. “Come to Jesus”, Chris said, although the song’s primary title was “Untitled Hymn”. It’s a curious title…what’s it mean to sing an ‘Untitled Hymn’? However, once you hear the poetry and the music, the song will undoubtedly be memorable for you. It's about the life cycle of a Christian – from birth, thru mid-life and its various ups and downs, and then to the end of mortal life, where there’s a re-birth because of Jesus. That’s something we can all celebrate, even now.  Wherever you are on the timeline, Chris said that the God-Son is the one to whom you can turn.

 

Perhaps the title of the album on which the ‘Untitled Hymn’ was released helps decipher Chris’ thinking at the time when it was written; or, we might just have to ask him when we meet him, whereupon he just might say ‘see the parentheses’! ‘Untitled…’ is part of the Run the Earth…Watch the Sky album recorded and released in 2003. What this 41-year-old advised was that any person’s earthly life has a beginning and an apparent end, and some ups and downs in between. Two of his song’s verses suggest that the person in the midst of a mortal struggle should gaze upward – watch the sky. ‘Raise your head…’ (v.1) and ‘Fly…’ (v.6), because that is where you will capture a vision of Jesus, he says. There’s lots more that those two verses bookend, and if you happen to be reading a bible and focusing on the subject of life, you might detect some parallel thoughts in Chris’ musical creation. Was this, more or less, what Chris Rice was up to when he penned his six verses? It would be interesting to know if Chris shared his idea for a six-verse song with his music publisher, and what they thought of such an enterprise. After all, most contemporary Christian music has just a few verses and perhaps a memorable chorus. But, as any bible student, even a casual one, might observe, life cannot really be described in just a few verses. ‘Life’ is a common biblical word (no surprise), used most often in Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs, Job, John’s gospel, Romans, and Revelation. Life begins and ends quickly and ignominiously for most humans in Genesis, but a few like Noah and others ‘raised (their) head(s)’ (v. 1) and were saved. The newborn Christian feels his ‘burden’s lifted’ (v.2), because God has given him a path to life. Rice’s next two verses tell of the valleys, not unlike what one might read in Psalms, Proverbs, and Job. I can ‘fall’ (v.3) and ‘cry’ (v.4), but the solution in both circumstances is Jesus. In John’s biographic sketch of Jesus, and Paul’s treatise for the Romans, a Christian can ‘dance’ (v.5 of Chris’ song) theologically because of the eternal life in Jesus that these apostles help you and me understand and celebrate.  Finally, John’s Revelation tells me of the culmination of it all, when I will ‘fly’ (v.6) toward Jesus and experience the book of life, the water of life, and the tree of life, though I will have my ‘final heartbeat’ here on earth.   

 

Where are you and me on the timeline? How would you title or sum up your life’s experience up to this point? That’s what you might imagine Chris Rice was challenging some young people to mull over, as he told them the one-word answer that even the despondent could use. Don’t hesitate to ‘come’, ‘sing’, ‘fall’, ‘cry’, ‘dance’, and ‘fly’. They’re all action verbs, so no sitting will be effective in acquiring the life that Jesus wants you and me to have. That’s another way to encapsulate the message that Chris Rice would have spoken for you some 20 years ago. It’s also one your bible would speak to you. Dust off that cover and see for yourself.

 

 

See biography on the author here: https://chrisrice.com/

 

See more on the author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Rice#:~:text=Chris%20Rice%2C%20a%20native%20of%20Clinton%2C%20Maryland%2C%20grew,his%20early%20work%20with%20youth%20and%20college%20students.

Here In This Place -- Chris Davis

This writer may be largely anonymous, though his name is known and what he wrote is blessing those of us who sing what he penned. So, if you are out there reading this post, and you know something about Chris Davis and what spurred his writing of “Here in This Place” in the late 1990s (song publication date of 1999), please share! This circumstance allows this blogger to play detective and use this forum to solicit your participation, but otherwise I will provide a few thoughts of my own, by looking at the words Chris authored. What’s the apparent setting for his song, and who was he thinking about when he coaxed others to sing his words? There may be lots of question marks in the rest of this entry, but Chris’ evident attachment to God is not one of them. See if you agree when you read what he wrote, and especially if you can remember a special moment when you have sung this bit of devotion that he’s offered up to the Holy One.  

 

Was Chris a worship leader in the late 1990s, and how many other worship songs did he create? A simple search on his name and the word ‘song’ suggests that Chris has written at least a few others in collaboration with other artists, but that ‘Here in This Place’ may be the only one he has authored alone. It seems his poetry here is addressed to a group that needed to release some things weighing them down emotionally and spiritually, as suggested in both of the first two stanzas. They had ‘burden(s)’, and felt ‘unworthy’ to approach Him who is holy. That applies to everyone on this planet, doesn’t it? But Chris wanted to reassure those who assembled that God is not one who recoils from sinners. How many stories in biblical accounts can you and I find in which it seems He embraces rejected people? It’s not too speculative to presume that Chris likewise found hope in those same stories, and if he shared some spoken words before launching into this song, maybe some of them referenced Jesus’ encounters with the religious outcasts of his day. This stemmed from Jesus willingly challenging the pious leaders of the time and thus making Himself a pariah. So, He knew all about rejection-dejection. Even his own hometown threw him out (Luke 4:14-30). Chris could probably imagine Jesus walking right into a group, such as the one to whom Chris could have been speaking and encouraging in worship. This God doesn’t stand on the sideline watching, Chris said. He’s present, ‘here in this place’ with us. That’s just a reflection of his ‘love’ for us (refrain), and so we can ‘raise our voices’, ‘lift up our hands’, ‘fall on…knees’ before this One who sacrificed for us, and wants to join with us. Was this the ‘altar call’ song in that gathering where Chris first introduced ‘Here in This Place’? If it wasn’t, it certainly fits there. Keep coming to Him, no matter what the setting is, Chris might say.

 

So, Chris Davis, thank you! You have made some touching music for those of us who want to draw close to God. Confession, release of guilt, receipt of mercy and grace, devotion, consecration, and union with this God are what your words and notes prompt me to seek in Him. It must have been special with the group where you first shared this. It’s indescribable to think it will go on, and on, and on. Though we praise Him now, just try to get your mind around a New Heaven and New Earth, and how we’ll be joining Him in His place! This place I’m in now is just a faint glimpse of that next place. He will be breathtaking to behold in His home…our home. Let’s go!

 

This site indicates a few songs associated with the writer of the song addressed in this blog entry: https://songselect.ccli.com/Search/Results?List=contributor_P429247_Chris%20Davis&PageSize=10&CurrentPage=1

Let God Arise -- Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Jesse Reeves

 

He remembers the time, even the phrases the speaker used to make his point. Chris Tomlin was in Hawaii early in the 21^st Century when he heard a preacher repeat the words -- “Let God Arise” – first spoken by God’s leader in a wilderness, and then remembered by a psalmist and king centuries later. So, it was no accident that Chris should find this three-word phrase so meaningful and moving, something that spurred on millions of people some 3,400 years earlier. God made Himself evident, and He called followers to obedience, offering them His own light and a leader whose face would shine when He descended from a mountain conference with Him. He’d already done so many rousing wonders – did He really need to offer more proof of His identity, power, and authority? Perhaps God knew songs would be necessary to preserve these moments, and so the story and its accompanying words entered the spirit of poets like David and Chris, and all of us who will listen.

 

Chris Tomlin leaned on the words and collaboration of three of his contemporaries, as well as Moses and the poet-king David, to write ‘Let God Arise’. Chris shares when he was backstage at a conference in Hawaii where Jim Cymbala was speaking. The words Jim spoke were brief but had the desired impact, at least for one hearer – Chris Tomlin. In Jim’s words -- ‘we’re having these conferences, trying to build this church as if God were dead, as if He needs our help. The truth is, let God arise, and His enemies be scattered.‘ It was a ‘wow’ moment for Chris, who knew immediately that he wanted to write a song, and so he scribbled that part of Psalm 68 (he mistakenly says Psalm 61 in the video interview) on a piece of paper, not realizing at the time what its origin was. He says it moved him like a guy who might be watching the movie Braveheart, and hearing William Wallace issue the challenge to his army as they stood before the enemy. He thought the song he would write should be consistent with the psalm’s emotive power, and therefore accompanied by music that was ‘rowdy’, not some ‘pretty little’ tune. It’s a ‘shout it out’ song, Chris says. Thus, that helps explain the raucous beat as you hear Chris and his cohorts perform the song, lauding the Almighty and his works. This people that Moses was leading in the wilderness following their orders from God Himself – their commander-in-chief – was a people prone to stubbornness and complaining. Moses had to urge them on each day with the title words of the song Chris would write over three millennia later (Numbers 10:35), the same words that David would use (in Psalm 68) to stimulate God’s people of his own era, 400-500 years later (around 1,000 B.C.). Apparently, Chris also leaned on the advice and contributions of two others of his own time, Ed Cash and Jesse Reeves, to fashion the words for ‘Let God Arise’. God’s directives still flow through countless believers, even today.  

 

Echoes of Moses and David reverberate in ‘Let God Arise’, the 21^st Century rendition of this wilderness and later-Temple worship song. Verses 1, 20, and 33 of David’s psalm remind us of Him, and how we carry on the devotion to this God. Chris, Ed, and Jesse add some other words that speak of God’s great personage, and His powerful acts on behalf of His people. ‘Our God… saves!’ There’s so much more that they tell us of Him, but saving power seems like one of the underscored points of this song. Just let Him loose – as if we had any ability to confine Him! – and watch Him arise and conquer. Saving us is just a derivative effect of who He is. I’m ready to go upwards with Him. You too?

 

The primary author shares the story in this 4/14/2010 video: https://www.praisecharts.com/blog/chris-tomlin-shares-song-let-god-arise/