Be Lifted High -- Leeland Mooring

 

Another sleep-deprived night – how often does that circumstance help breed a new song? Leeland Mooring could say with confidence that, at least during one of these times, God was telling him to pray (maybe even with clasped hands) and worship, that Leeland needed to say ‘Lord “Be Lifted High”, because I’ve got something on my mind’. Maybe something had happened just recently, or perhaps it was a more chronic issue that was bothering Leeland, but the situation didn’t leave him with merely a ‘brain-fried’ feeling the next morning in 2006. And, sharing it with a musical friend, one who may have had similar episodes in his own experience, probably helped validate what Leeland’s sleepless event had generated. Even the casual bible reader might notice the number of times that God used sleep (as in dreams), or a sleepless time so that His mission can proceed (like Paul – 2 Corinthians 6:4-5; and 2 Cor. 11:27). So, what do you think…how may God have been using your human sleep cycle for His purposes?

 

Leeland Mooring relates in a video (see link below) that ‘Be Lifted High’ arose during one night following a long trip that he and his band members had just completed. Was it jet lag, or delayed stress that Leeland was feeling, which induced his insomnia? He doesn’t seem to dwell on the physical part of what happened, but more on what was going on inside himself, something that just told him he needed to pray and worship at that moment. Leeland mentions struggles that people endure were in his thoughts – things like sin, or emotional issues, or perhaps depression. Perhaps it was ‘sin’ most prominently, since he addresses that in the opening line of both verses 1 and 2 of the song – that sin ‘grows old’ and ‘lead(s) to pain’. It was with this realization -- of knowing what this disease of iniquity does to a person – that gave Leeland the answer he found in the poetry he found himself writing. ‘Put God in the center of all my issues, and all those toxic things just melt away’ – that sums up what Leeland felt about the crux of the matter, and gave him the song’s title words. Verses 3 and 4 indicated that Leeland thought another root of our human problem is being ‘prideful’ and ‘think(ing)…it was me’, that our basic egos shove us into the wrong place. It’s as if we are like those biblical characters we have all scoffed at, who worshipped the created things (like idols) rather than the Creator. You and I are His created beings, too. Mooring shared his song and his thoughts with Michael W. Smith, who evidently embraced what Leeland shared, since he included the song on his next album (Stand, in 2006). 

 

Leeland mentions one more effect of putting God in the center, and it’s in his song’s chorus so that it’s repeated, as if to remind us of its import. I don’t lift Him high just for my own eyes to see; it’s so ‘that they (will) see’. Will everyone eventually see the Creator? What do you think when you read 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, and Matthew 24:27? Oh yeh, He’ll be high then, all right. But, for some the sight will be horrifying, and for others it will be quite different – call it exhilarating. It really will be a result of some people seeing Him for the first time, even in their minds and hearts. For others, they will be seeing someone they’ve longed to see physically, while having held Him close – or, rather being held close by Him —for some time. Don’t wait until the sky parts, and then discover that you suddenly and terribly feel like ‘mourning as the Son of Man is coming on the clouds of heaven’ (Matthew 24:30). Get used to seeing Him now, even if it takes someone else helping you with your eyesight.           

 

See the song’s story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSg8n2JSL8k (time-mark 0:45 – 1:52 of this New Song Café episode [worshiptogether.com])

 

See here for information about the author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leeland_(band)

 

Public Domain status of the picture of praying hands: (Artwork by Albrecht Dürer  [1471–1528]). The author died in 1528, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928.

O Praise the Name (Anastasis) -- Benjamin Hastings, Dean Ussher, Marty Sampson

 

The power of the story – that’s what enabled three writers to say with renewed vigor ‘O Praise the Name’. And then they added in parentheses a word in Greek that was a nod toward the original message as it was delivered – Anastasis (correctly pronounced ‘ah –nas –ta –sis’). It sums up why anyone would want to praise God – because I can be raised to new life, resurrection. (See the painting from 1700 by Noël Coypel.) His resurrection is the first and most meaningful of all, and therefore His return and all believers’ resurrection will be a picture and an episode like no other, a depiction worth a thousand words (as someone has once said). And yet, the very first scene in the song that Ben Hastings, Dean Ussher, and Marty Sampson drew musically for you and me in 2015 was not that glorious new-life scene, but rather the death scene, at a place called Calvary. The whole story, including its grisly beginning, is what makes the ending so worthwhile. And so, that is Easter, as these three were reminded as they re-read what the biblical accounts say. It doesn’t need embellishment – its divine truth and power defy any human effort to augment its import. Just read it, and see the scenes…that’s what Ben, Dean, and Marty did in musical form.

 

What Ben, Dean, and Marty eventually created was not arrived at easily. Marty relates how the three of them needed several sessions and many weeks for the music and the lyrics to materialize, and it was appropriate that as Easter approached on the calendar, this modern hymn took its final form. The three of them pondered how old hymns had been inspirational, and that the lyrics they envisioned should tell the whole story of Jesus’ sacrifice and amazing renaissance, and yet they still struggled on their own to produce something that reached their objective. Marty indicates he ultimately began to look intently at scripture’s details of Jesus’ final days, an exercise that so captivated and focused his mind, that the lyrics actually expanded beyond what he and the others had initially conceived. A fusion of stirring music and narrative was the final result, beginning with Jesus on the cross (v.1), His burial (v.2), and his rising (v.3). Verse 4 creates a further evolution of the rapture, as the believer sings of his own destiny, as a revived being, one overcoming death. The words only relate what really happened, and what we all have been taught will happen, and so it really is impossible to overstate the value and effect of the story. Jesus ‘bled and died’, was ‘wounded’ and ‘cursed’ for me (v.1). He was ‘bound’ and ‘in tears’, buried behind a ‘heavy stone’, and was ‘all alone’ (v.2). Those words capture the gloom, setting up their opposite in the last two verses. How could anyone shrug at the ‘angels roar’ or Paul’s (1 Corinthians 15:55) reminder about what God said through the prophet Hosea (13:14) regarding ‘trampled death’ losing its ‘sting’ (v.3)? Who will not see this risen God ‘in…white’, or be able to escape His ‘blazing sun’ attention, or be indifferent about ‘Jesus face’ (v.4)? No, none! I will be ‘transfixed’, spellbound, gripped, riveted…there are no adjectives or 1,000 synonyms for these words that are adequate for the occasion! Same thing goes for exclamation marks….

 

The three 2015 composers did not need many other words for their chorus beyond the song’s title. The praise will be ‘endless’, ‘forevermore’ for this ‘Lord’. Isn’t that enough? So, the question must be asked, the doubting, skeptic addressed. What other plan have you got that’s better than the one that Ben, Dean, and Marty have described? Is your plan more certain? Do you really think it’s wise to dismiss the hinge-point of history, an event and a life around which our calendar is centered? What have you got to lose by betting on Jesus being the TRUTH? If He’s a lie, what have you really lost in the end by believing in Him, if there is nothing but death and a dead-end anyway? But, don’t be caught disbelieving in Him, IF in fact He is true. You will have lost everything, for all eternity. There won’t be any going back, no do-overs. Now is the time. Hook yourself up to Jesus, so you can say with others what Ben, Dean, and Marty coach us to say.

 

See the song’s story here: https://hillsong.com/collected/blog/2015/10/song-story-o-praise-the-name-anastasis/

See here for an explanation of the Greek term in the song’s title: Anastasis - Wikipedia

See here for information about the song and the album on which it appears: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Heaven_/_River_Wild

See here for a discussion of the song’s scriptural basis: Is 'O Praise The Name (Anástasis)' Biblical? | The Berean Test

 

Picture of Resurrection  -- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Noel-coypel-the-resurrection-of-christ-1700.jpg   (painting by Noël Coypel  (1628–1707]; Public Domain status: This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. {{PD-US}} – US work that is in the public domain in the US for an unspecified reason, but presumably because it was published in the US before 1928.)