Psalm 23 (I Am Not Alone) -- Joshua Sherman, Laurel Taylor, Steven Musso, The Emerging Sound

 

It most likely happened at a summer camp. The year was 2018, and Joshua Sherman and two other musical collaborators, Laurel Taylor and Steven Musso, reached back for a song that was very old, in order to drawn something that remained potent from its object of worship. “Psalm 23 (I Am Not Alone)”, which drew upon what one shepherd once wrote about another greater shepherd, spoke to these three 21^st Century songwriters. David’s version, and so many other renderings since his day 3,000 years ago, engender peace and contentment; Joshua, Laurel, and Steven, while in the camp atmosphere of The Emerging Sound, took David’s thoughts to a place of elation and pure excitement as they considered what the Great Shepherd provides. He gives the people of His pasture so much right now, and if what’s to come because of His provision could possibly be fathomed, that would really blow the top off of all we can imagine. That’s what Joshua, Laurel, and Steven seem to want us to drink in.  

 

Joshua, Laurel, and Steven come from different places in the eastern part of the United States, so one can guess that they came together somehow to mull over, share, and create something that their ancient songwriting brother would have recognized. These three heard and read what David said, and just to rearrange his lyrics some would have been profitable, and yet they evidently had some other objective in mind when they thought about Psalm 23. Joshua ministered in Boynton Beach in southern Florida, Laurel was Nashville in Middle Tennessee, and Steven was in Albany in east-central New York, so did the three talk by phones or via some other remote devices to craft the song? Part of it may have emerged from such an interaction, but since they cite The Emerging Sound as a part of their collective composing team, we can be pretty certain that they were together at one of the summer camps that this organization hosts to foster songwriting and ultimately the spread of the Good News. They thought David’s words about the Great Shepherd and what He provides were worth repeating – protection, anointing, guidance through valleys, refreshment and restoration, the mercy and grace He offers, and the comfort and confidence that makes our souls overflow. That’s a lot. Wrap up all of that in a single package, and how does one feel? That is what is expressed in this Psalm 23 version, and you and I are invited to feel as Joshua, Laurel, and Steven unmistakably felt as they sat with each other at a campsite. They used words that David must have also felt, but left unspoken. Hallelujah and Victory (vocalized six and fifteen times, respectively, throughout the song) raise the lyrics to a new height, testifying to a thrilling awareness for what He’s laid up for us to have in His presence, in His home. We can anticipate and be confident that He will, and is already providing for us, as these three remind us that ‘my Comfort, always holds me close’, an antidote to this life of frequent challenge that He alone bestows. David surely knew all about this too, and that ‘Your Spirit lives within me’, though he did not explicitly pen these phrases. Joshua, Laurel, and Steven thought David’s heartstrings beat pretty strong in these unspoken phrases through what he did write, so why not include them three millennia later? Good idea!   

 

Not much more needs to be said to expose what three contemporary Christian songwriters discovered eight years ago. Others probably have felt similarly as they have read and thought about David’s ode to the Great Shepherd. Too often, though, it is consigned to rather sad occasions, at funerals. Its comforting tone is appropriate for soothing the wounded hearts at those times, certainly. But our great Redeemer and Protector is more than a soother, as this new version of the 23^rd Psalm communicates so powerfully. Sing the hallelujahs and victories now that we implicitly know David had in his own soul, and which Joshua, Laurel, and Steven have seen fit to shout aloud. Say them again, and again, and again. Keep doing it. Live like it, and see who else will join in. (Click on one of the links below to get yourself in the correct frame of mind!)    

 

Hear a very stirring rendition of the song here from one of the artists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpTXb_-sir8

 

Read some about the primary composer here: https://www.jasministries.com/

 

Read about another of the co-writers here: https://www.themussos.com/about

 

Read about another of the co-writers here: https://www.thechristianbeat.org/artists/laurel-taylor/

 

Read about the songwriting group that helped spawn the song here: https://www.theemergingsound.com/

 

See information about the image here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bernhard_Plockhorst_-_Good_Shephard.jpg... 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-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States….the image may be found in this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheep  

Have Mercy On Me, O God – David

 

Conviction. Deep guilt. Profound humility. That was what David’s insides looked like, and what cried out from within “Have Mercy On Me, O God” in the aftermath of being confronted by Nathan (2 Samuel 12) about his multi-sin episode with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. (See this painting [date sometime between 1866 and 1931] by Eugene Siberdt, The Prophet Nathan Rebukes King David.) How many of the Ten Commandments had David violated? Perhaps some group might debate just how many and which ones, but certainly at least three or four of the ten (6^th, 7^th, 9^th, and 10^th) were cast aside by David in just a few moments. This ‘man after God’s own heart’ (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22) had acted like a vile sinner – an adulterer, murderer, and liar -- and he knew it. His actions made his execution, even by stoning or some other shameful method, justified in God’s law. Had David managed to do anything right in this episode? Think about David’s response.

 

The lack of excuses was, someone might say, the only thing David did that was right in the immediate wake of the confrontation with Nathan. This king didn’t choose to try explaining away his behavior, didn’t try to shift blame, or diminish what his sins had made so horribly true. In the following days, one might say that David accomplished something else that was positive, representing a continuing struggle with the guilt he bore. Psalm 51 and its 19 verses have resonated through the 30 centuries since this king first wrote them (around 1000 B.C.), producing dozens of renditions of David’s remorse. Perhaps the most well-known is the Miserere, versions of which began to appear in the 1400s and which have continued to emerge through the early 21^st Century. Besides ‘Have Mercy…’, which completely captures the first two verses of David’s psalm, ‘Create in Me’ (see 6/20/2020 post on this blog) is another contemporary worship prayer that encapsulates verses 10 through 12 of Psalm 51. David never fully compensated for his sins, but had he known that so much music would arise from this one episode, would his mortified conscience have been somewhat less stricken? Will there be other additional contemporary songs from the 14 remaining verses of Psalm 51? If David were here to express his preference, what would he say about more songs to remind him of his grievous affair with lust? Perhaps David and the rest of us who are vulnerable to the same sin should remember that even while he was confessing, he was receiving some measure of mercy. In the same verse (2 Samuel 12:13) where David says ‘I have sinned against the Lord’, Nathan is reassuring him that ‘You are not going to die’. Even so, David’s unborn son inside Bathsheba would die, and this king’s family would be riven with strife for the remainder of his days, and beyond (vv. 10-12 of same chapter). Sin has consequences, but God is also merciful, even before we know we need it. Given what he’s told about the awful after-effects of his sins, one wonders if David might have preferred his own on-the-spot execution, versus having to endure God’s punishment in ‘broad daylight…’.

 

What David says in the rest of Psalm 51 – especially Psalm 51:3-4 – indicates he realized God’s ‘verdict…(was) justified’, and that his sentence was to look at ‘transgressions and my sin always before me’ for the rest of his days. Does this put a different tint on ‘Have Mercy…’? When he penned these words, he’d already received some mercy from the Lord – his own life having been spared. Was David instead asking for further relief, a parole from the rest of what Nathan told him to expect? ‘Blot out’ his sins, and clean up ‘all his iniquity’ – that’s what David asked from God. Can you see David shuddering at the thought of all that would transpire over the next several years? David’s contrition here is a blunt warning…sin is a mess, and regret over it can last a lifetime. That’s both David and God talking to you and me.  

 

 

See here for brief information about the Steve and Annie Chapman couple that reprise David’s words in their version of the song: The Mitchell Group – Steve and Annie Chapman

 

See NIV Study Bible for notes/thoughts on David’s Psalm 51.

 

See here for discussion of Psalm 51, including its musical results since its original composition:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalm_51

 

See here for information on the image/painting of David being rebuked by the prophet Nathan: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eug%C3%A8ne_Siberdt_-_The_Prophet_Nathan_rebukes_King_David.jpg  (Public domain status of the image -- 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-1996}} – public domain in its source country on January 1, 1996 and in the United States.

Give Us Clean Hands – David and Charlie Hall

 

He was looking for something personally, and then realized more people than himself could use what he’d discovered. Was that what the ancient songwriter-king David found also, a pretty intimate time with God that he cherished and then thought others should hear? “Give Us Clean Hands”, the worshippers of David’s time would have cried, as the ark of the covenant was carried into the Temple (as seen here in this 15^th Century work), or perhaps as they later commemorated that occasion. So, it was no accident when Charlie Hall opened his bible some 30 centuries later and found some insight into approaching God, since this God doesn’t change and asks those who want to draw near Him to do what the worshippers at the Temple did so long ago. Purity…such a hard thing to acquire. Charlie found the words of the psalm were convicting. Ready to practice some submission?

 

Charlie Hall was doing one day (sometime around the year 2000) what he’d done on numerous other occasions: bible study. He indicates in an interview that he was looking for God to speak, to provide something to spur a change in his heart. Why Charlie thought he needed a heart-check is not clear, but perhaps he wasn’t any different from others who come close to God just to find that undefinable something that seems to be missing. Psalm 24 jumped off the page (or off the screen) for Charlie, who says he wasn’t aiming to write a song. It was just a few moments in which he needed to be alone with Him, singing back to God what He was saying to him in scripture, a kind of prayer. And then he read what David wrote (v.6 of Psalm 24) about a ‘generation’ of would-be worshippers. Perhaps this was when Charlie realized that his personal moment could resonate with others. Everyone needs to ‘bow..hearts and bend..knees’, to be ‘humble’ before the Holy Creator. Consequently, all things ‘evil’, and especially ‘idols’, need to be cast aside. Not only ‘clean hands’, but ‘pure hearts’ are the decontamination that is a part of the separation from idols, of making God the one and only being toward whom worship is directed. David’s ‘generation’, and Charlie’s three millennia later, sought God’s ‘face’, the visage of this ‘God of Jacob’. That’s quite a thing to say to this Holy One…to be submissive to Him, and try in one’s own imperfect way to be pure before Him, and then say you want to see His face. Are you and I really ready for this?

 

That goal, to see God’s face, is really an aspiration that none of us will truly realize until Eternity dawns. Moses, too, asked to see Him and was denied by the merciful God (Ex. 33:18-23) – God wasn’t quite ready for Moses to die; He wanted him to do more. Those of David’s time did not yet have Jesus, and those of us in Charlie’s time have only an artist’s conception of what the God-Man might have resembled physically. But, I can sense what’s in my own heart, see whether my hands have engaged in wrongdoing, and admit when I am a bit too close to earthbound things. Those are the three things I can put on my daily agenda to try to rectify, if I am honest and really do want to meet Him face-to-face one day. Just weigh these things on your spiritual scales, including how long they will last…earthly habits and attitudes for something like 80-90 years (?), versus what He can give me in the afterlife that never will end. What’s your scale’s readout suggesting to you?

 

Watch the song story recounted here: https://www.worshiptogether.com/songs/give-us-clean-hands/ (New Song Café) …Based on Psalm 24 by David (story on video from beginning to 2:09 mark (appx)

 

See some information here also, including a brief recitation of the story: https://hymnary.org/hymn/LUYH2013/628

 

See here for the song’s copyright date: Give Us Clean Hands (arr. Joshua Chandra) Sheet Music | Chris Tomlin | Piano, Vocal & Guitar Chords (sheetmusicdirect.com)

 

NIV Study Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1985, and accompanying notes re: Psalm 24’s background also provided details.

 

Find the image of ark here, along with public domain status of the picture: File:Folio 29r - The Ark of God Carried into the Temple.jpg - Wikimedia Commons This work (The Ark carried into the Temple from the early 15th century, Pol, Hermann and Jannequin de Limbourg (1370s–1416); Jean Colombe (c. 1440–93)) 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.