Every Time -- Philip Organ

 

What time is it? For Philip Organ, the answer was “Every Time”, as he thought about his response in the mid-1990s. And so, with every swing of the clock pendulum (see here the drawing of the first pendulum clock, designed by Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens in 1657), he admitted that a regular, every-second timing, should have been the standard for recognizing God’s active hand in a person’s life. That was the ideal, but Philip admitted that that was not reality for himself. Another word – distraction, though not explicitly uttered -- was operating among his every time efforts, like weeds occupying space side-by-side with the good crop he was trying to coax in its growth (Matthew 13:24-41). Which of the five senses was intruding with random inputs while Philip attempted to sense God? Which ones don’t in the average individual’s life?

 

We know little to nothing about Philip Organ, save for the few lines he wrote in ‘Every Time’ and a few other results from 21^st Century internet search techniques, though these few spare details do reveal what’s most important about him – his commitment to being a signpost for the Creator. He’s produced songs for at least one album (Surrender, in 2018), and since ‘Every Time’ was apparently produced in the mid-1990s (either 1994 or 1996, according to different sources –see link below, as well as a hymnal), Philip has been making God-pointing music for over 20 years. A picture of him associated with the song ‘Believer’ indicates he was relatively young (less than 50 years old, perhaps?) in 2017. So, for Philip to think about time and how he was spending it, as a young fellow in the mid-1990s, is noteworthy. Introspection prodded Philip to note four different incidents that spoke of God’s character. Prayer showed him a God to whom he could talk openly and honestly, while just the simple act of closing his eyes allowed him to feel His ‘embrace’ (v.1). A ‘child’ and a ‘storm’ might seem to the ordinary observer like evidence of opposing forces, but to Philip they resounded with God’s ‘gentleness’ and ‘awesome power’ (v.2). To Philip’s perceptions, this was indeed a God who any rational person should not ignore. And yet, he could also confess to this same God that ‘so many things…’ (chorus) interrupted his attention, diverting his mind from the ‘glory’ that should have mesmerized him. In his own admission of wandering, Philip abruptly concludes his thoughts with an image of the cross (v.3), and then nothing more. It’s as if Philip is articulating something that God Himself intended to do with His crucifixion – provide a pivotal moment that needs no further exposition. Just look upon your God dying for you, and what does that mean? You figure it out, Philip suggests.

 

How many times each day does one touch, taste, smell, see, or hear something? Did Philip Organ try this question on for contemplation when he thought about his time expenditure? Using the five senses – which my Creator has given me – is an exercise like wielding a double-edged sword. He would like me to take note of Him in everything, as Philip also suggests in his song. And yet, I might also use these five abilities for evil – blasphemy, drug addiction, pornography, gluttony, crime, lying, pride, etc. The list is pretty long, with many permutations. Are your senses running like wild horses, threatening your sanity and even your mortality? Philip has a suggestion in his brief poem, this prayer-song he offers. See if you can turn those horses in another, vertical, direction.       

 

 

This site shows a recent album of Philip Organ music, with a photo of the author-composer: https://music.apple.com/us/album/surrender/1438237683

 

Listen here for rendition of the author-composer’s song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXbwccRzY9o

 

The link here indicates this is a 1994 song: https://www.hymnlyrics.org/newlyrics_e/every_time.php

 

The hymnal Songs for Worship and Praise, edited by Robert J. Taylor, 2010. www.songsforworshipandpraise.com indicates the song was written in 1996.

 

See link here for information on the clock picture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock#/media/File:Huygens_first_pendulum_clock_-_front_view.png

 

Public Domain status of the picture: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:PD-US-expired

 

Rescue Me – David and Keith Lancaster

 

He felt his life was in danger. Does risk get any more personally menacing than that? It’s safe to assume that this hazard dogged David for a good portion of his life, both before and after he became king, so pinpointing just when he cried out “Rescue Me” is really an exercise in guesswork. (It might have been any of the multiple times he was fleeing from Saul, as shown here in this 17^th Century painting by Jusepe Leonardo). That this desperate, foxhole-like prayer was a psalm (17) suggests that it became widely known, and that is one assumption we see underscored by a 21^st Century composer named Keith Lancaster. His musical rendition of David’s cry is intense, unlike probably any other psalm that you or I have sung. So, when he echoes the words of the song title, you best be prepared. It calls upon the worshipper to put him- or herself in the most unfamiliar place – calling for vengeance from God upon a fellow human being. It might make you wonder, ‘Is this worship that God will accept? How could this be one of my fragrant sacrifices (see the book of Exodus, for example) to Him in song?’

 

Perhaps Keith was emboldened to write ‘Rescue Me’ for a couple of reasons, though there’s not any record of what he was thinking about when he wrote it (perhaps he might share that, if he reads this!). Keith was one of the large team of people involved with something called the Timeless project, as the first decade of the 21^st Century neared its conclusion. This group is still at work (as of 2023) to bring new life to all of the Psalms, so skipping any of them is objectively a departure from their purpose. Just how Keith drew, or gave himself, the Psalm 17 assignment would be an interesting question for him! That it is one of the psalms may have been reason enough for Keith to tackle Psalm 17, to ‘pounce’ on it with vigor, as David might have said regarding his enemies’ pursuit of him, with similar words in this prayer (like verses 11-12 in the psalm). It certainly seems to break some new ground, musically attacking the words of the psalm – like ‘…bring them down’ (chorus). It could be relevant for anyone who feels like David did at the time. Just think of how Dietrich Bonhoeffer might have felt in Nazi Germany in the 1940s, or today imagine how you might react in worship if you are Ukrainian. Did Keith have some circumstance like that, maybe one on a smaller scale even, on his mind? Among the vindictive psalms (otherwise called imprecatory or cursing psalms), Psalm 17 is in fact tamer in light of some of the others. Try on Psalm 58, which is more bitter and has virtually no words to praise God, and is still more startling in that some of the superscriptions in its title provide firmer evidence, compared to Psalm 17, that it was sung corporately (words like ‘for the director of music’, ‘to the tune…’, and a potential musical term ‘miktam’). Could it be that David, like others before himself, had concluded that it did no good to try hiding his feelings, vicious and raw as they may be, from God?

 

Some authors have called Psalm 17 and others like it ‘problem’ Psalms, because of their malicious tone.  How am I to square singing Keith’s ‘Rescue Me’ with good Christianity and ‘loving my enemies’? Answer that with another question, perhaps. Did God punish Job further for his spleen-venting tirade? One author, Philip Yancey, suggests that Christians can use these psalms (you might in fact call them pslams, as you demand that God slam someone to relieve your distress) to good effect.  Yancey reminds us that God demands authenticity in our relationship with Him. So, bring Him these spiteful feelings, lay them at His feet, and ask Him to mete out justice and righteousness on His own schedule. And, there are plenty of verses in the New Testament also, in which the Savior Himself or someone else brings strong imprecatory language to bear on people (see John 2:13-17 >> Ps. 69:9 and Acts 1:20 >> Ps. 69:25 and 109:8) for their wrongdoing. You and I need be only as real with our Creator as our forefathers and our Lord were, so don’t think you’ve improved upon the human model with your reticence and apparent tolerance of wicked enemies. God’s not impressed with your attempt, and He really knows that deep inside you feel differently, OK? Is unsuppressed anger toward others eating at your gut? Try giving that to the One who made you, and see if His remedy doesn’t help you.

 

Read here about the Timeless project, which includes the song that Keith Lancaster wrote for the Praise and Harmony group to sing as part of that project: https://timelesspsalter.com/pages/about

 

Source of the picture of David fleeing from Saul: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jusepe_Leonardo_001.jpeg  

Public Domain status of picture: {{PD-US-expired}}

 

See also Philip Yancey book The Bible Jesus Read, and chapter 4 (Psalms: Spirituality in Every Key), pages 133-39, Zondervan Publishing House, 1999.

Mighty Is Our God -- Eugene Greco, Gerrit Gustafson, Don Moen

 

It took a trip across at least four states, with three heads working on it, but “Mighty Is Our God” could not be held back – true to its name. It wasn’t something that Eugene Greco found difficult to compose, when he first jotted down the chorus section of the song in 1989, shortly after a morning worship time with his music students in New York. It just came into his head without much explanation, except that God must have placed it there, with evidences of the subject of this tune all around him – as they are for anyone who looks up and takes notice of Him. He’s the Almighty Creator, Eugene pondered, even as Michelangelo must have, when he created his masterpiece on a chapel ceiling to appreciate his Maker’s power (see a portion of it here). Then, as if with a momentum all its own, Eugene’s tune traveled south to Texas, and then to Alabama, and into Florida where Gerrit Gustafson and Don Moen added some words for another few lines to cap off what their New York musical brother had started. This compositional history speaks of a lengthy and sprawling journey that shows how big He really is -- can He really be stopped when He makes up His mind to do something?

 

Eugene’s chorus caught on immediately with his students, so it shouldn’t have surprised its author when it found its way to a sister campus of the New York school (Christ for the Nations) in Dallas. And then it caught on in so many other places – like concerts and churches – that music publishers in Alabama felt its impact, as if it was the gust of a windstorm, and made plans to include it on a record. That Gerrit Gustafson and Don Moen made a joint effort to produce some additional music and lyrics, first in an Alabama house basement and then during a car trip to Florida, further demonstrated how much potential they projected for ‘Mighty Is Our God’. It was a winner, in their minds. Gerrit and Don didn’t give the song a lot of extra frills, for it didn’t need much. Eugene’s words had already ascribed ‘mighty’ and ‘glory’ to this Creator he called out to with four names – ‘God’, ‘King’, ‘Lord’, and ‘Ruler of Everything’. All that Gerrit and Don did was build on Eugene’s words with an additional thought: this Being is supreme – with a ‘higher’ name and ‘greater’ power than anything or anyone else, proven by His creative initiative. Does anything else need to be said? Less is more, perhaps they reasoned.

 

Michelangelo’s work, even in its magnificence, will not compare to Him in person. The great artist does try to show Him in His space, surrounded by other beings that owe their existence to Him. Do I have enough, looking at my own existence, to appreciate all of His mighty creative nature? There is so much more, wonders that only a few humans have ever seen up closer than the rest of us, such as the astronauts who have been out into the heavens. And yet, those handful of men and women did not report back that they saw God out there. But, what they did see was pretty obvious – a universe testifying to a Creator; otherwise, saying it all emerged just on its own defies credulity. What might Moses say, if we could quiz him about the Almighty? And, what about Adam and Eve, who, after all, once were in the same garden where God walked (Genesis 3:8), and knew Him up close apparently? Eugene, and Gerrit, and Don don’t probe for answers to these questions. They’re not forthcoming, at least not yet. Are you curious enough to keep searching?   

 

The song story is found in the following book: I Could Sing of Your Love Forever, by Lindsay Terry, Thomas Nelson publishers, 2008

 

God Almighty photo’s Public Domain status: {{PD-US-expired}}

Photo found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michelangelo,_Creation_of_Adam_06.jpg