Hear the Sound -- Leslie Jordan, David Leonard, Matt Maher

 

How would a people who’ve just realized they’ve been rescued sound; what would they say to the One who has made the seemingly impossible happen? That was the sensation that Leslie Jordan and David Leonard were trying to access with so much of their music when they formed All Sons and Daughters in the Nashville area (see the map here of the Nashville area [in Davidson County] in Tennessee) in the latter part of the first decade of the 21^st Century. “Hear the Sound”, from the period around 2012, occupied a place alongside other songs that they felt would connect broken, struggling people with an appreciation for the God who freed them. Is a ‘thank you’ enough, or would any number of words be sufficient for such an episode? Just consider what Leslie and David, with some apparent help from Matt Maher, thought would be appropriate words to say to the God-Redeemer.

 

Though these composers don’t share what precisely was behind ‘Hear the Sound’, what they have made clear (in an interview in NewReleaseToday, see link below) was their intent to make their music relevant to people gathered in a church for worship, to invite these people to join in with them. And, something in the lyrics they wrote further suggests they had a particular idea about what such a group of people should ask God to hear. Take a look through Psalms, and notice how ‘hear’ is used, as the ancient songwriters asked for help while in distress, with so many cries for mercy or deliverance or perhaps just complaints offered up to Him who can deliver. Alternately, many praise psalms to extol God are also evident in this ancient songbook, and perhaps that is where these 21^st Century songwriters went when they sought to offer a contemporary version of a psalm of praise. Though God is a Divine Being with love and compassion at His core that guide His response to our distress, He has so many other characteristics that stand out. We can certainly ask for His help, but Leslie, David, and Matt must have been dwelling on other reasons why a people might call out to Him – to tell Him we acknowledge and honor Him for who He is. These three would have found a large number of psalms that speak of His ‘mercy’, ‘grace’, patience (‘slow to anger’), ‘majesty’, ‘forgive(ness)’, and His ‘redeem(ing)’ and ‘restor(ing)’ mission, and of course His ‘love’. One other term they use four times, however, is ‘forever’, for which there are abundant references in Psalms to laud Him: Psalm 9, 29, 33, 48, 66, 68, 89, 92, 100, 102, 105-7, 110-11, 117-19, 125, 133, 135-6, 138, 146, is not an exhaustive list. ‘Let the heavens roar’, and ‘echo across the ground’, they lift to Him, as a prompt for His ears to have His own creation tell of His greatness.

 

Lest Luke 19:40 be called into play (Jesus said ‘stones will cry out’, if the people did not shout His name), Leslie, David, and Matt give today’s disciples one more psalm to shout our admiration for Him. What’s the best way to have Him listen to you and me? That’s what these three answer with their song. And, it’s a reminder that His attributes haven’t stopped just because Psalm 136 ended with 26 verses, for example. How about if you and I could pick up where that psalmist stopped, since He focused so many of his thoughts on earth’s and Israel’s ancient history? Has not God been praiseworthy for the last two millennia, or more personally in yours and my lifetime? Make sure those stones aren’t warming up today, to do what we’re neglecting to do!    

 

 

Read here about the worship duo who were two of the three composers of the song: All Sons & Daughters - Wikipedia

 

Read here about the album on which the song appears: Live (All Sons & Daughters album) - Wikipedia

 

Read about two of the composers here: All Sons And Daughters Artist Profile | Biography And Discography | NewReleaseToday

 

See here for information on the map-picture of Nashville metro area: File:Map of Tennessee highlighting Davidson County.svg - Wikimedia Commons

Great Are You Lord -- David Leonard, Jason Ingram, Leslie Jordan

 

These three friends set out to make a song, a LOUD song. That is how David Leonard envisioned “Great Are You Lord”, something not terribly original, but one that could let a crowd sing with abandon and energy. He must have felt like the worship crowds he was trying to guide could use an injection of life, something that would metaphorically look like some old dry bones coming to life (as in what the prophet Ezekiel saw, reproduced in this 19^th Century engraving by Gustave Dorè). And actually, David and his friends Jason Ingram and Leslie Jordan also borrowed and re-phrased an idea from a fourth musical friend (Matt Redman) to provide some of the inspiration for the song they were trying to bring about. And still, according to David Leonard, the song almost didn’t happen, except that this group kept working this one over and over until something clicked. Was it their own dry bones that needed the Spirit’s influence?

 

This song really was a group effort, with each of the members bringing some of their own thoughts to what would eventually emerge (sometime in either 2012 or 2013). Jason apparently had been sharing with Matt Redman about David’s desire to create a spirited anthem, a feeling not unfamiliar to Matt, who told Jason he felt that hearing a crowd really lifting God’s name in worship through song while in the very presence of Him was a matchless experience. That gave Jason a thought which was inserted into the song’s lyrics – that God’s ‘breath (was) in our lungs…’, so praise just could not be limited. That thought provided the initial push for the song’s creation as Jason, David, and Leslie sought to add more lyrics in their joint session. They eventually added words about God giving ‘life’ and ‘hope’; being ‘love’; ‘restor(ing) …broken hearts’; and bringing ‘light to the darkness’ – all great reasons to shout the song’s title words. Whether it was one of them alone or a collaborative thought, the imagery of Ezekiel 37 leapt to their lips too, as they imagined a whole army of lifeless skeletons suddenly becoming reanimated. ‘These bones will sing’, they said, but it was more than just one valley where they saw God’s hand at work; they believe He’s got ‘the whole earth’ on His mind. As Leslie explained, this vivid imagery helps spur a certain fervor and unparalleled power among His people, something that can speak volumes to a world filled with those who don’t yet believe. We’re all waiting with great anticipation the New Heaven and New Earth, but it’s not too soon to tell Him now what we think of that great future that He’s preparing.

 

There’s a point in the podcast with David (see its link below – ‘simplecast….david-leonard’) in which he admits that there’s not a whole lot more to the lyrics that he and Jason and Leslie settled on. Perhaps that’s why David suggests that the group almost put aside the song as an unfinished work, thinking it still needed some more. But, as they think now, what more needs to be said, in order to say ‘thank you’ to Him over and over? The blessings He’s already delivered are plenty to acknowledge, and to mull over in their depth and breadth. He’s lived up to His promises about bringing hope and life and purpose, not to mention restoration to broken people through countless Christian communities. Further, access your imagination, and just think of your lifeless form rising from a coffin someday. Be reborn, with rejuvenated parts, and just look around at your friends and loved ones alongside. Wow! That’s the feeling that David, Jason, and Leslie were after with this song. Pass that along to others, and watch this electric contagion take hold!       

 

See here for the song story: https://www.logos.com/grow/great-lord-new-classic/

Hear the story of the song here: https://jesus-songs.simplecast.com/episodes/001-great-are-you-lord-david-leonard-ju2TebN6 (begin here: 18:20 – 22:11)

See here for information about the authors/composers: Great Are You Lord | Hymnary.org

 

Information and link to the image of the dry bones: The Vision of The Valley of The Dry Bones - Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones - Wikipedia. This image is in the public domain because it is a mere mechanical scan or photocopy of a public domain original, or – from the available evidence – is so similar to such a scan or photocopy that no copyright protection can be expected to arise. The original itself is in the public domain for the following reason: 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.

Called Me Higher -- Leslie Jordan

 

This one was really something that matched the name of the singing group and its purpose, and so it was probably a ‘no-brainer’ for Leslie Jordan to pen the words for “Called Me Higher”.  All of her spiritual brothers and sisters – All Sons & Daughters (the name of her singing duo, and the name of the album, too, on which the song appears) – in the Franklin, Tennessee (part of the Nashville metro area) church were on Leslie’s mind. Though she eventually saw the song as for this large group, it didn’t start out that way; it was, instead, pretty personal in its conception. ‘Pray this, just between you and Him’, she thought to herself. It was no more complicated than that. It’s just one more landmark, further evidence, of what can emerge from a musical person when she contacts the Spirit. So, don’t keep some of those prayers private and confidential, if it will motivate others around you – that’s a secondary message that comes out of this story.

 

Leslie Jordan was helping guide the worship at the church were she and David Leonard (her singing partner in All Sons and Daughters, and co-worship leader at the church) were active sometime in 2012. She was thinking about her own walk with God, and really wanted to be authentic and expansive in her faith. And so, she admitted to herself and to her Lord that she didn’t want to ‘just sit’ (v.1) or ‘hold on’ (v.2), remaining in a ‘safe’ zone.  She asked Him in this prayer to move her off center, to come and ‘lead her ‘deeper’ and ‘higher’ (chorus). Later, when the song had fully arrived and was being produced for the album, Leslie says she was thinking also about everyone in the church, and how they might be coaxed to launch outside of themselves. It would be about all of them letting go of fears, about letting God take control of circumstances. This all came to her mind as she was driving along one day. She pictured different people being challenged to do things they’d not had the courage to do before…to be called into His strength. As verses one and two indicate, Leslie thought it would be easy to not do anything different, but just ‘wait’ for God to move, and yet there was the inclination toward ‘never’, which she repeats three times (v.2). It shows she recognized her internal drives, and the impetus versus inertia conflict that was ongoing. Perhaps she could likewise see it in the facial expressions of her church’s members, or hear it in their voices as they talked about various visions and circumstances to manage. These visions, perhaps in their collective immediate futures, were not the only ones to consider. Leslie thought about being His vessel and force ‘for all my life’. That’s a pretty big commitment, if we really mean it when we sing it, isn’t it?

 

Who can imagine all that one might do in all of his life? I don’t have that kind of crystal ball, and some of what I might see would scare me, probably. Leslie Jordan didn’t let thoughts like that stop her from challenging herself, and us, with those forward-leaning kind of words. She, and all of us, need one elemental thing in order to make a pledge like she sings in the words ‘for all my life’. Trust. He’s the only one who knows the future, and knows each of us better than we know ourselves. If He’s ‘called me higher’, then logically I should realize that anything is possible if I’m truly in tune with the place and the Creator that I am aimed at. Leslie just seems to be saying ‘let the Spirit loose on yourself’, to let that ‘higher’ and ‘deeper’ grow that space in which I live. Just see how big it can get!

 

 

See the author-composer description of the song’s origin and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbCXOI3QIcA

 

Read here for description of the musical group in which the author-writer sings: All Sons & Daughters - Wikipedia