Let God Arise -- Chris Tomlin, Ed Cash, Jesse Reeves

 

He remembers the time, even the phrases the speaker used to make his point. Chris Tomlin was in Hawaii early in the 21^st Century when he heard a preacher repeat the words -- “Let God Arise” – first spoken by God’s leader in a wilderness, and then remembered by a psalmist and king centuries later. So, it was no accident that Chris should find this three-word phrase so meaningful and moving, something that spurred on millions of people some 3,400 years earlier. God made Himself evident, and He called followers to obedience, offering them His own light and a leader whose face would shine when He descended from a mountain conference with Him. He’d already done so many rousing wonders – did He really need to offer more proof of His identity, power, and authority? Perhaps God knew songs would be necessary to preserve these moments, and so the story and its accompanying words entered the spirit of poets like David and Chris, and all of us who will listen.

 

Chris Tomlin leaned on the words and collaboration of three of his contemporaries, as well as Moses and the poet-king David, to write ‘Let God Arise’. Chris shares when he was backstage at a conference in Hawaii where Jim Cymbala was speaking. The words Jim spoke were brief but had the desired impact, at least for one hearer – Chris Tomlin. In Jim’s words -- ‘we’re having these conferences, trying to build this church as if God were dead, as if He needs our help. The truth is, let God arise, and His enemies be scattered.‘ It was a ‘wow’ moment for Chris, who knew immediately that he wanted to write a song, and so he scribbled that part of Psalm 68 (he mistakenly says Psalm 61 in the video interview) on a piece of paper, not realizing at the time what its origin was. He says it moved him like a guy who might be watching the movie Braveheart, and hearing William Wallace issue the challenge to his army as they stood before the enemy. He thought the song he would write should be consistent with the psalm’s emotive power, and therefore accompanied by music that was ‘rowdy’, not some ‘pretty little’ tune. It’s a ‘shout it out’ song, Chris says. Thus, that helps explain the raucous beat as you hear Chris and his cohorts perform the song, lauding the Almighty and his works. This people that Moses was leading in the wilderness following their orders from God Himself – their commander-in-chief – was a people prone to stubbornness and complaining. Moses had to urge them on each day with the title words of the song Chris would write over three millennia later (Numbers 10:35), the same words that David would use (in Psalm 68) to stimulate God’s people of his own era, 400-500 years later (around 1,000 B.C.). Apparently, Chris also leaned on the advice and contributions of two others of his own time, Ed Cash and Jesse Reeves, to fashion the words for ‘Let God Arise’. God’s directives still flow through countless believers, even today.  

 

Echoes of Moses and David reverberate in ‘Let God Arise’, the 21^st Century rendition of this wilderness and later-Temple worship song. Verses 1, 20, and 33 of David’s psalm remind us of Him, and how we carry on the devotion to this God. Chris, Ed, and Jesse add some other words that speak of God’s great personage, and His powerful acts on behalf of His people. ‘Our God… saves!’ There’s so much more that they tell us of Him, but saving power seems like one of the underscored points of this song. Just let Him loose – as if we had any ability to confine Him! – and watch Him arise and conquer. Saving us is just a derivative effect of who He is. I’m ready to go upwards with Him. You too?

 

The primary author shares the story in this 4/14/2010 video: https://www.praisecharts.com/blog/chris-tomlin-shares-song-let-god-arise/

 

Lord, Take Control – Anonymous

If just a few words were feasible in the language banks of a God-believer, which ones would be the most important to include there? Maybe that’s not too remote a question to imagine the writer of the song words for “Lord, Take Control” asking, since the text of this pithy tune sounds like the response someone might utter after listening to Moses’ instruction between three and four millennia ago after his encounter with the Holy One at Mount Horeb (see him holding the Ten Commandments here). You and I were not there, but the instruction is no less crucial for those of us in the 21^st Century A.D. The Messiah underscored their importance some 1,500 years after the great lawgiver first spoke them. The author of the words is not really anonymous – after all, Moses was only passing on what his Lord told him to say.

The Jews call them part of the Shema. So, was the one who composed “Lord, Take Control” of Jewish derivation, or just an admirer of its implications? Asking the Lord to take control, by means of commanding my heart, mind, body, and soul, is nearly a word-for-word recitation of what Moses said all Israel was to do (Deuteronomy 6:5) in order to obey God’s law. (I’m seeing the word ‘body’ as a close parallel to ‘strength’, the actual word used in that ancient prayer.) It’s also what Jesus reiterated for those standing nearby to listen as He carried out his mission (Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30); and it’s what He agreed was paramount, when someone He quizzed responded with these words (Luke 10:27). Aren’t we glad that Moses and Jesus summed up the law with a one-sentence command? Because Jesus agreed this Jewish affair was in fact what He too was emphasizing, you and I can employ His words to follow God, without regard to the excruciating details of other Hebrew laws. We can imagine the modern-day composer of this musical Shema making note of Moses’ and Jesus’ words, and adding his or her own summation of what obedience to these words imply – give God control. Another fellow – Paul – would sum up his version of what it meant to obey completely the Shema; for him, it was to make oneself a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). To Moses, Jesus, and Paul, loving the Lord with all one’s heart, mind, strength/body, and soul = living sacrifice = the Lord’s in control.              

Could it be that a nameless composer determined “Lord, Take Control” was the most effective way to transmit a message he or she was trying to get into the heads of listeners, via a musical vehicle? It’s an inner quest, when someone seeks to follow Him completely. But, like a healthy, well-balanced, but light meal, one need not consume much to draw energy from sustenance. This compact, yet meaty musical feast has all the necessary ingredients. A desire for true devotion – like what one says in the Shema -- is perhaps best accented with music. God used this method with David, after all. Why would He stop using it? Can you hear Him in our music today?

Only bible references and this blogger’s own opinion are used to present the story of the above song.

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms -- Elisha Albright Hoffman and Anthony J. Showalter

How long to do suppose hugging between humans (like what’s in this picture) has been around? Forever, right? And yet we don’t seem to get tired of it. In fact we need it, like medicine or daily bread. Babies are said to be underdeveloped if they don’t get this treatment, in fact. So, when Anthony Showalter received a couple of letters one day in 1887 that reached out in heart-brokenness, he responded, even though the fellows whom he sought to embrace were not within arm’s reach. “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” was what he and his collaborator Elisha Hoffman composed to salve the hurt of not just two broken hearts, but countless others who might hear of their remedy for this condition. There’s not only a mortal quality to this therapy, but also a divine one that carries the ultimate cure.

Showalter was a 29-year old music teacher from Georgia, who happened to be in Alabama, and sought out his 48-year old friend Hoffman in Pennsylvania, with help from inspired words Moses spoke in a wilderness thousands of miles and years from 1887. Two former students had lost their wives in death, and somehow they each knew to whom they could go for solace – their former music teacher, Mr. Showalter. He didn’t disappoint them, offering sympathy in letters, referring to Moses’ words about God’s ‘everlasting arms’ to his people as he prepared to leave them in his own death (Deuteronomy 33:27). But, he didn’t stop there, feeling moved that a hymn worth remembering was hidden inside this episode. So, when he wrote his friend Elisha with the words to the chorus and what motivated them, his cohort responded with three verses. Anthony soon had the music written to match the words Moses, Elisha Hoffman, and he had authored. An amazing thing had happened, even though it took fatal blows to generate the product. Moses’ words came as he thought about his own passing, and they echoed centuries forward as A.J. Showalter confronted the same issue. Did the dual nature of his former students’ loss accentuate the experience for Showalter? Perhaps he felt overwhelmed by his young friends’ despair, an engine that propelled him to Moses’ episode and a people preparing to move on without him. The potion the two 19^th Century men and their forefather Moses prescribe for this death struggle we all face, probably numerous times in an average lifetime, never loses its potency. Their words in “Leaning…” say that it grows stronger, in fact.  

This story tells us something about the nature of us, passed on from a God in whose likeness we’ve been constructed.  That the hymn has survived into the 21^st Century shows the three who gave us the words (Moses, Showalter, and Hoffman) knew what power lay in the words, necessary for humankind to endure its final tragedy. How did Showalter know to go find these biblical words? It must be that he’d discovered he couldn’t escape inevitable death, even if he himself hadn’t yet reached 30 years of age. Instead, embracing is the answer. This includes other people, and Him, too.

Information on the song was also obtained from the books  Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990, Kregel Publications; The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.; and Then Sings My Soul – 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.

See following site also. http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/l/e/a/leanarms.htm

The Greatest Commands -- John, Paul, Moses, God

These composers had been exposed to something, or had become so much like what they wrote, that their words rang with an authenticity previously unheard. Consider the personal history of some of these guys, and you might have had reason to scoff if you’d heard them verbalize “The Greatest Commands” – to love, as if with a godly love. They didn’t really collaborate on the song, as far as we know, but their messages struck a common chord. A single source makes this possible, even for those of us who are multiple millennia beyond their era.

Let’s see how each of the writers arrived at the words he composed. John was the ‘beloved Apostle’, thus he wrote about behavior he’d experienced first-hand. No one might have said his expression of love was very winsome when he and his brother James walked with Jesus. They were the ones who thought they deserved more of His favor than the other Apostles (Matthew 20:20-23), and who’d wanted to call down fire on unfriendly Samaritans (Luke 9:51-54). Yeh, this was a son of thunder, not love, at that time. Yet, when he wrote as a much older man to a group that was attracted to Gnosticism, a false spiritualism, the wizened John told them the basics of true spiritualism – love (1 John 4:7-8). Love sacrificially. John must have seen a lot in that group that showed they’d twisted this love into something immoral. John’s was a message of correction. So was Paul’s, some thirty years before John’s ode to love.  This middle-aged Paul was the same guy who’d chased, persecuted, and had had Christians killed less than two decades earlier (Acts 8:1-3). Whatever happened to him, it must have been radical, right? The Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13) he addressed had lots of issues, not the least of which were squabbles among themselves, a debilitating environment for God-centered folks. Unity was impossible among such a people. Paul said God’s nature was the most perfect, a patient, resilient, trusting devotion (v. 7). But, perhaps the operative word in Paul’s thoughts is ‘all’. This Pharisee among Pharisees had all the answers, once. But the Love-God encompasses everything, not blowing up everything in His path, but swallowing it and transforming it. That rather echoes what preceded these two 1^st Century composers (John and Paul), when a people prepared to enter where God had led them. Moses gave them the words (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), but it was really God’s thoughts he mouthed, and which were repeated some 1,500 years later in the two apostles’ generation. Love Him with everything you have.

Could God be laughed off as insincere, too, in matters of love? After all, He’s the one who killed an army to preserve His chosen people (Exodus 14). A God of love, hah!  But, notice His patience, watch His plan develop, and see if you can fathom how He allowed Jesus to make Himself known, and then be killed. God might seem inscrutable, but for Jesus. He made me in His image, and He didn’t stay distant. Instead, He chose to be human like me. Conquer death, de-fang this most fundamental truth of my being. Love cancels out all the minus signs. Is that great or what!

There is no source for the song story, but for background on the song,  see the New International Version Study Bible, general editor Kenneth Barker, 1985, copyright The Zondervan Corporation, for notes on Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 1-5, and other scriptures therein.