What a Beautiful Name -- Ben Fielding and Brooke Ligertwood

 

They let scripture speak, and that method got deep inside themselves as they thought about all that God was saying. Brooke Ligertwood shares that she and Ben Fielding were reading, and became so struck with “What a Beautiful Name” Jesus has, that they couldn’t help singing about this realization and its importance for believers in late 2015.  What happened for Brooke and Ben in Sydney, Australia (at or near the Hillsong Convention Center, see it here) need not be an isolated event or an understanding only for an elite few. We all have bibles – even multiple copies for each of us – that tell of the supreme Creator, and how he has reached down and done something astonishing, even for those who might reject Him. That must have been part of the wonder and amazement that these two songwriters encountered as they prepared for a conference at the Hillsong worship site.

 

Ben and Brooke were preparing, as 2015 wound to a close, to sing and share in 2016 with other ardent believers about the only One worthy of worship. Would there really be anything new that they could say to such a group? Perhaps it’s the daily grind and the all-too-common misuse of His name in the everyday world that helped spur their study and discovery of something unique to Him – that His very name is so distinct and, as they say repeatedly, beautiful, and not just attractive, but also wonderful and powerful. Do you suppose that’s why God is so adamant in the Third of the Ten Commandments – ‘You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name’. (Exodus 20:7 and Deuteronomy 5:11)? His name has multiple facets, as Brooke mentions in the video when she relates how the song developed. She and Ben were reading various passages in Colossians (1:15-20 and 26-27), Hebrews (1:1-4), and apparently some in the prophet Isaiah (42:7; 49:9; 58:6; and 61:1-2, which Jesus Himself quotes to his hometown crowd [Luke 4:18-19]) and these two down-under songwriters found so much that should lift everyone above life’s doldrums. He was ‘at the beginning’, the very ‘Word’, present with the Creator (v.1). He didn’t ‘want heaven without us’, so with His great mind and heart motivating Him, He made His way toward us, to allow His grace to overcome our sin (v.2). So, those two verses help us capture the beauty and wonder of His name. Brooke and Ben cap the song with the power of His name – that cruel ‘death’, the ‘veil’ separating believers from Him, and the ‘grave’ that once held Him, surrendered to His name. Indeed! Jesus’ name has no ‘rival’ and no ‘equal’, a fact in which Brooke and Ben invite us all to celebrate passionately.   

 

The Ligertwood-Fielding approach to songwriting here is not just for musicians. Everyone could be singing a chorus of praise daily, if they read what drew the attention of these two songwriters before they even sat at a keyboard or had a guitar in hand. As Brooke talks about it in the video, there is something special that happens when a person identifies something in His word that connects with a truth deep in one’s soul, and then vocalizes that. It helps nurture and cement faith, and is rather like a building block that one apostle (Paul) was trying to urge believers in his age to adopt…. Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ (Romans 10:17) – that was the train of thought that Brooke expressed. Singing the truth of scripture is like a confession of belief that someone can offer to God. Would there be any other way than beautiful, wonderful, and powerful to describe someone who created you, came to earth, sacrificed Himself, and then rose again to bridge the gap between you and Him?        

 

See/hear the song story here: Hillsong Worship - "What a Beautiful Name" (Story Behind the Song) | WORD 101.5 FM - Pittsburgh, PA (wordfm.com)

 

Read some more information about the song here: What a Beautiful Name - Wikipedia

 

See Hillsong Convention Centre image information here: File:Hillsong Convention Centre.jpg - Wikimedia Commons.  This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Tatie2189. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: Tatie2189 grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

I Sing Praises to Your Name -- Terry MacAlmon

 

He was praying. And spontaneously, a song came into his head and his heart as he was preparing for the worship service that was scheduled to take place in a few minutes. One Sunday evening in 1986 in his family’s new church home in Loveland, Colorado (See flag of Loveland here) was the scene for Terry MacAlmon, the time and place – but certainly not the only time and place for him, as a worship leader – that would spawn words like “I Sing Praises to Your Name”. Had he been reading from Psalms in the days and hours beforehand, so that some key phrases were lodged in his music-making spirit? Terry doesn’t try to answer that question, but he does recall that during that evening, it seemed as though his inner self still was searching and trying to determine if this song should really be shared. Its title does indicate it was an “I” song, so perhaps part of the uncertainty was a sensation that it should remain between the Lord and himself. But then, why did it come to him just before the service? Terry decided to let the Spirit lead, and look what happened.   

 

The song’s words were on the back of an envelope, a method that was not unlike what Terry had practiced before, since he usually kept an envelope in his bible to use as scratch paper. The difference in this 1986 episode was that all of the words came at once, rather than the 50-75% that he usually accomplished on-the-fly like this. No practice, no preparation at all – that’s how Terry approached that evening’s premier of ‘I Sing Praises…’. And so, he admits he felt a bit anxious, for the time he’d spent in a prayer room by himself was personal, and perhaps this little praise ditty was not quite ready. One can imagine, without too much speculation, that Terry’s role as a worship minister had him turning the pages of Psalms in his bible pretty often. The pages of that ancient songbook are replete with very similar phrases that Terry jotted on the envelope that evening in 1986. Had he looked at one or more of them (including Psalm 9:2; Psalm 18:49; Psalm 68:4, or others like 9:11; 47:7; 57:9; 59:17; 61:8; 71:22-23; 75:9; 92:1; 98:4; 108:3; 146:2; and 147:1), without really realizing that his own study time was gestating another, more contemporary version of what David and other Jewish psalmists had first penned? Whatever happened -- in the prayer room or during numerous study times in which he had likely engaged – new musical fruit was fully grown unexpectedly that night, with Terry as the vessel for it to fully ripen. They weren’t difficult words and music that Terry introduced that evening – bringing ‘praise’ (v.1), ‘glory’ (v.2), and ‘worship’ (v.3) to Him, because ‘His name is great, and greatly to be praised’. Perhaps in Terry’s reading of the Psalms, he saw the Lord’s praise fully developed already, and thus not really needing further adornment through his own hand. Terry’s song chorus is really more like an echo of what his musical forebearers had already expressed.

 

Keep scratch paper handy in your bible! Keep reading the Psalms. And, what the Spirit has led you to write, don’t hold back in sharing it. Those are three things that Terry might say he took away from his ‘I Sing Praises…’ experience. In the following months, Terry remembers that the envelope song eventually traveled to other nations around the world, an idea that he remembers he scoffed at when one of his praise band members told him that was his vision for the song’s use. So, something else that Terry might have gathered was this: God and even others around me can have more foresight than the guy penning the words and writing the music. He uses all of us, for His own – often inscrutable -- purposes. I don’t have to comprehend it all. He’s got you and me, so just latch onto Him for the ride!     

 

See the song story in the book Celebrate Jesus: The Stories behind Your Favorite Praise and Worship Songs, by Phil Christensen and Shari MacDonald, Kregel Publications, 2003.

 

Also see the song story in this source: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006.

 

See information on the flag of Loveland here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Loveland,_Colorado.svg …This image of simple geometry is ineligible for copyright and therefore in the public domain, because it consists entirely of information that is common property and contains no original authorship.