Deep Calls to Deep -- Randy Gill

 

His family was enduring a deep hurt, so he figured there was no better place to go than to a psalmist who had likewise been suffering, and who called out to the Creator-Healer from a deep pit. Psalm 42 was where Randy Gill went in his abject despair, voicing “Deep Calls to Deep” in 2001, when he feared his family just might be disintegrating before his eyes (perhaps metaphorically ending up not unlike what would happen months later to the Twin Towers in New York…see the photo here). Could Randy have known that his own heart’s therapy would also be salve for a much bigger wound for thousands of people, even a nation? Read on to hear in Randy’s own words what ‘Deep Calls…’ meant when he wrote it, as we today remember a memorable, heart-rending day nearly 22 years ago.  

 

Deep Calls to Deep was written in the spring of 2001. Our adult son had been struggling with drug addiction for years and it was devastating for my wife and me. He would visit from time to time and we were never sure when he left whether we'd ever see him again. My wife and I had even had the very difficult conversation about whether our marriage would survive if he died. That spring was especially hard for all of us and I had taken to reading and re-reading Psalm 42. So many of the psalms are laments, but the language of deep calling out to deep really resonated with me. I wrote the song as a way of reminding myself that even in the worst of times, the psalmist was committed to praising God.

 

ZOE (an acapella singing group) recorded the song in the summer of 2001 and we decided to make lament the theme of our conference that fall. Several of us were dealing with challenges and we thought a conference focusing on the need for expressing our pain to God might be helpful for lots of people. We felt like the church needed to be reminded of the power and place of lament in worship. The conference and the release of the CD were scheduled for the first week of October, but I sent a pre-release copy of Deep Calls to Deep to my friend Larry Mudd who was the worship minister at the Manhattan Church of Christ. He received the song the first week of September. Neither one of us knew at the time how appropriate it was about to become. As far as I can tell, the first time Deep Calls to Deep was ever sung by a congregation was at the Manhattan Church of Christ the Sunday after 9/11.

 

I’m so humbled and moved that the song has meant so much to people in times of trouble and heartbreak. BTW - my son is now healthy and sober.    

 

What was it that fellow over 2,000 years ago said to a group of Corinthians?  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.(2 Corinthians 1:3-4). My misery and healing may be used to help someone else, so pass it along, Paul says. You might call it Grief Share…that’s the name of a ministry that a good Christian sister I know is using to reach others who need it, who need some soul medicine for deep hurts. You may also have heard of Celebrate Recovery; it’s for those who have finally admitted there is something amiss in their lives, and they too want Christian community healing. It all emanates from Him, the One who used His own deep hurt, and an incalculable price He paid, to draw us, His church. Yours might be a deep wound, but our God is a bottomless well of compassion. Thanks to Randy and all of you who serve and love others…you remind us how deep and amazing is our God.       

 

See here some biographic information on the song’s author: Randy Gill | Directory | Lipscomb University

 

Many thanks to Randy Gill, the song’s author/composer, for sharing his memories of the song with this blogger on 9/4/2023.

 

See link here for picture of the World Trade Center destruction in Manhattan in the wake of 9/11/2001: File:FEMA - 3969 - Photograph by Andrea Booher taken on 09-19-2001 in New York.jpg - Wikimedia Commons (This image is a work of a Federal Emergency Management Agency employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As works of the U.S. federal government, all FEMA images are in the public domain in the United States. Additional media usage information may be found at https://www.fema.gov/photo-video-audio-use-guidelines)

As the Deer -- Dennis Jernigan

 

Almost 34 years had elapsed, but he still remembered. Perhaps in some ways, Dennis Jernigan would prefer to not have such a good memory of a time such as that day, May 26^th, 1987. And yet, that special time when he was a 28-year-old, and felt so distressed that he described himself as a wild animal with a desperate need for water – that’s when Dennis metaphorically thought of himself “As the Deer”, searching for a drink (perhaps not unlike the deer that walked through my neighborhood one recent morning, see picture). It was something he didn’t keep private, but shared with his Creator as he read an example written by an ancient poet, a person with whom Dennis felt camaraderie. That old poet also felt downcast, so Dennis says he drew upon the ageless work of that song-maker for sustenance. And, then he’s gone about telling others about that day, with a version of his own psalm from the Sons of Korah (Psalm 42).

 

In his podcast on March 29, 2021, Dennis Jernigan talked about the day in May 1987 as if it were yesterday. He admits, as anyone who’s in a deep pit might also do, that he thought for a time that the most refreshing answer to his misery might be death. That this episode happened just before he really began to make his journey with published music for others to hear (beginning in 1989) says something about the authenticity of Dennis’ song story. This was his own way out of that desert, a method he now ardently recommends others employ. And yet, Dennis is quick to relate that he doesn’t think of himself as really emerging from the dry time, but instead just discovered that God was still with him. That’s how he found – or rather, in whom he found – nourishment. His very life depended on finding that God was with him, and by drawing on His deep well. Dennis began the podcast by also sharing the story of another person who felt downcast, because she was an outcast. The Samaritan woman at the well (John 4) evidently was someone with whom Dennis also identified. Dennis’s life journey has brought him through struggle, as a man trying to understand his own past and the homosexual lifestyle he had chosen for a time (he left that lifestyle in 1981). You can read about this in his book Giant Killers. He’s adamant that Jesus has been the only answer for the thirst he had, and still has, and that realizing this has been transformative. That’s why the Samaritan woman at the well is a story that resonates with Dennis; she was searching for happiness and meaning in all the wrong ways, and Jesus tells her that He can give her the only water that will satisfy (John 4:15). Dennis’ message is simple: you can get out of the pit of despair, but you and I need the God-man continually for the wherewithal to live here and in the eternal future.  

 

In the ‘maskil’ (perhaps a musical or literary term) psalm that the Korahites wrote, and the one that Dennis echoes, you don’t have to guess what these writers feel. Most of the ‘maskils’ (see especially the 7/28/2008 and 5/15/2009 blog entries for more discussion of this) indicate these poets felt a despondency that they salved with their prayers and songs to God. Is that implicit in the term ‘maskil’? Short answer: we don’t know. But, Dennis, and you, and I can know for certain that He hears. Part of the hearing, it seems, is that others with whom we walk and talk every day also have things with which they grapple. Nothing is outta bounds when it comes to relating to each other. We all need each other’s understanding, and the God who will ultimately heal all of those hurts. If Dennis has done this, so can you and I. We all need and have access to the water He has.   

 

See this link for a podcast in which the author shares the song’s story: http://podcast.dennisjernigan.com/e/as-the-deer-thirsts-for-the-water/

 

Read more about the author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Jernigan

 

And, here also: Dennis Jernigan | About DJ

Almighty -- Wayne Watson

It was about obedience, in the face of an episode in which he felt a bit vacant. That’s how Wayne Watson really says he felt about the circumstances of “Almighty”, which he wrote as a 36-year old in 1990. How can a guy admit that he really wasn’t in the best of places when he wrote something that says God is supreme? Did he really mean it, especially when he relates what was going on in the background of his life? From what he says about how he regarded the song later on when talking to his professional associates, Wayne still was skeptical of this song’s pedigree. But perhaps the response of this author-composer in the face of less-than-optimum conditions – that he obeyed His God’s leading – says the most about what makes a musical invention flourish.

There were several hurdles that might have stopped Wayne Watson from writing and publishing the song ‘Almighty’ between its germination and its completion. And yet, there were other factors that overcame these impediments. Wayne shares that he and his family were grieving the death of a close friend, someone whose departure, by human standards, was premature. That she left four daughters might make someone question how a compassionate God could allow this. Frankly, that’s where Wayne and his family were, with a sense that prayers were being unheard. Nevertheless, Wayne’s conviction that God is sovereign compelled his obedience – and his response to this by writing the words and music of ‘Almighty’. Unlike what one might expect would be a difficult slog, Wayne relates that instead ‘Almighty’ emerged swiftly as he sat and composed at a piano. His submissive spirit created the words and music that Wayne says salved his deep hurt over the following days and weeks. Months later, however, he was reluctant to let two of his song publishing friends believe ‘Almighty’ was really suitable for broader use. He felt it was too different, and told them so. Despite this, they immediately responded upon hearing it that the song was a winner, and needed to be heard. Through their encouragement, and by using it in concerts and in other venues, Wayne Watson’s personal response to bereavement gained rapid and wide approval. You can hear Wayne pondering the situation in which he found himself in some of the words in verse 2 – ‘… a darkness has covered the earth’. It is a dark place when someone close dies. And yet, Wayne felt charged to offer his God what is His due – praise, even in the midst of gloom. The noises of the ‘beasts’, ‘birds’, and ‘rocks’ (v.1) would not be an adequate substitute for a man’s song to Him. Even the ‘hopeless’ (v.2) can look forward to a regenerated life, and have reason to ‘dance and sing’. It might not seem like it when death descends, but Wayne reasoned that He’s still ‘Almighty’.

Wayne had evidently concluded that God can work even in circumstances that that kill us mortals. That makes His power something special, unique, in fact supernatural. Miraculous is what you and I need most when it counts. I and others left behind to shed our tears, offer comfort to the family, and try to muddle through and pick up the pieces have ‘no choice’ (v. 1), as Wayne says, but to offer ourselves to this miraculous God. Does any other being make the promise that He does, backed up with a personal visit, sacrificial death, and renaissance to cement the pledge he bids you and I should accept? If it’s not true, but a hoax, where do I turn? No other place, in short. So, if He’s the only one who offers what I need, what else needs to be said? If He’s Almighty and Glorious, I win BIG if I believe and He’s true; if I don’t believe and He’s true, my loss is incalculable. If He’s fake and I believe Him, what have I lost in Eternity? Nothing, since no one else is offering what He does. If He’s fake and I don’t believe Him, what have I lost in the forever-world? Again, nothing, since I chose to take my stand on nothing. Do you see what Wayne and others who believe in Almighty are saying? Make your stand with the Glorious, Almighty. What have you got to lose when death calls your name?        

A source for the song story is the book “Celebrate Jesus: The Stories behind Your Favorite Praise and Worship Songs”, by Phil Christensen and Shari MacDonald, Kregel Publications, 2003.

See here for information about one of the author: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Watson