It was an ‘out-of-body’ experience. This, from a 20th Century songwriter, was how Pete Sanchez described what happened to him one Sunday morning in Houston (see that city’s seal here) in the mid-1970s. What Pete was reading was many centuries from the time when some anonymous songwriter first penned the words “I Exalt Thee”; while he was trying to recapture the moment when these special words were first written, could it be that Pete’s reaction was similar to that of the original poet? The scenes this poet saw seemed almost otherworldly, breathtaking in how they spoke of a God whose creation acknowledged Him as the Supreme Being, the Master to whom all things must answer. Indeed, if Pete was sensing the Spirit move while he sat at a piano, he surely must have read the other words in the same body of work that the ancient poet used, words that called out to a believer sitting in an apartment in south Texas at a piano. As the psalmist (Psalm 97) began and ended his ode to God, the joy of which he wrote seemed to envelop Pete Sanchez, until he felt something almost indescribable.
Joy (Psalm 97:1, 8, 11-12) infuses the verses that Pete first read, culminating for him in one particular verse that spoke deeply to him. Pete was in the middle of a quest to craft contemporary songs for each of the psalms when he picked up Psalm 97 one day; perhaps he could not have imagined the months-long journey he was about to take. Upon reflection, Pete says he hadn’t really intended to take what he first played one day in his apartment beyond own piano keyboard. This was supposed to be personal. His first effort at Psalm 97 yielded verse 9’s contents, because Pete felt this was calling out to him intently. Maybe it was the way that the ancient anonymous poet juxtaposed the joy-inducing vision of God throughout the entire psalm’s 12 verses with the terror at the Almighty’s glory and power in those who instead worship idols. Images of ‘fire…consuming foes’ (v. 3 of Ps. 97); of the ‘earth tremb(ling)’ before Him (v.4); of ‘mountains melt(ing) like wax’ (v. 5) speak of a God who cannot be tamed – he’s a fearsome God, one with whom we cannot trifle. Conversely, for ‘Zion’ and ‘the villages of Judah’ (v. 8), there is rejoicing, and the assurance that He ‘guards’ and ‘delivers’ the ‘faithful ones’ (v. 10); that He embodies, above all, a righteousness that draws us to be like Him (vv. 2, 6, and 11-12). It seems that Pete Sanchez received something anew that day when he read the psalmist’s 12 verses, a joy for himself that he found standing upon the foundation of verse 9 – that He is ‘the Most High, exalted above all (other) gods’. And yet, it was not yet complete in that one sitting for Pete, nor would it be in the next several attempts. For six months, Pete wrestled with his incomplete invention without resolution, until one April 1976 Sunday morning. It was like he walked into a’ new room’ he says, an ‘eternal moment’ that induced ‘chills’, when he just sang the simple words that became the song’s title. Weeks later, this episode repeated itself at a music conference, as the assembled group in a room responded with spontaneous exuberance, coaxing Pete that his personal experience with Psalm 97 should be shared more broadly.
Look at what Pete found in Psalm 97; a psalm that has been described as an ‘orphan’ because so little of its background is known to historians. No author is identified, and no information is provided in the superscription (below the title) to tell us what musical details accompanied the poetry. It’s just the words, the poetry, that guides what I should think of my relationship with the eternal God that the psalmist was trying to offer. Another 33 of these ‘orphans’ are among the 150 Psalms for you and me to consume. Orphans, unfortunately, are too often disadvantaged or worse in human culture, but Pete found there was something in what this anonymous writer said centuries ago that struck a chord in his spirit. Kinda makes you wonder what the other ‘orphans’ might say, doesn’t it?
See the song story here: Dr. Pete Sanchez | I Exalt Thee Song Story [Gateway Worship Training] (youtube.com) (story begins at 2:00 of video)
Also 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.
See NIV Study Bible, general editor Kenneth Barker and associate editors Donald Burdick, John Stek, Walter Wessel, and Ronald Youngblood, Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1985.
See information on the seal of Houston here: File:Seal of Houston, Texas.svg - Wikimedia Commons. The seal’s author
died in 1864, 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, 1929.
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