Living Hope -- Phil Wickham and Brian Johnson

The authors/composers wanted to say something about what they believed, as a holiday to celebrate the Resurrection drew near. Phil Wickham kept in contact with Brian Johnson with his texting device and the two finally had what they wanted to say about “Living Hope” as Easter approached in early 2018. Phil had been in the music-writing and performance world for a while, and the sprit of music had been in him since childhood, so was it an accident that brought this song forth, making it a top-10 hit? Looking at the breadth of his life, one might say it was a foregone conclusion that Phil would write what he did with the help of Brian. Yes, Phil has been musically successful, but he’d probably tell anybody who’d listen that he owed a lot of that to those surrounding him. Phil evidently learned a lot about living hope by having many others pinpoint the source of that phrase for him to see.

Phil Wickham must have known since his childhood days in San Diego that music would be his calling, leading him to craft music and nine albums by the time “Living Hope” took its place on Christian music charts in 2018. His parents and a brother likewise have been involved in music in churches in southern California, so Phil’s decision to seek out his own faith expression – with the encouragement of his parents – via music at age 13 in his youth group was part of the family’s DNA, you might say. “Living Hope” wasn’t the first success for Wickham, but the third he’d written to be a top-10 Hot Christian Songs charted composition. How Phil felt about this song and his obvious success reveals that he hasn’t allowed all this to cloud what really matters – the sentiments expressed in the words he wrote. Reflecting on the song, Phil indicates he feels ‘rescued’ from ‘death’, an expression that must resonate with so many others who he says have taken up the song as an ‘anthem’ in the churches where he and Brian Johnson conduct praise worship. Its expression of ‘truth’ and redemption is what Phil says he hopes others will ‘…cling to (it) as well’.  You can imagine that Phil and Brian might have been deep into their bibles and what the ancient apostle said to give them the song-title that they co-wrote (1 Peter 1:3). They also took note of the exclamation mark in this same verse that this ancient writer (Peter) used to express the passion believers have for this transport of death into life. That comes through in how the two songwriters echo Peter’s unbounded celebration and realization. We’re all freed!

What would it feel like not only to get out of prison, but to have one’s record expunged? That’s the sense that Phil Wickham and Brian Johnson convey in “Living Hope”. Their metaphors in the praise chorus include ‘…death has lost its grip’ and ‘…broken every chain’, so that everyone hearing would appreciate how slaves set free might feel. The ‘chasm’ and the ‘mountain’ (v.1) have been overcome. It’s in verse 3 that we all cling to the ‘Roaring Lion’ as we think of confronting the grave, the inevitable. The phrases above are some powerful reminders, some vivid imagery that speaks to the conscience of my mortality. It’s coming, isn’t it? That death is real, I cannot deny. But, so is living hope. Grab on to that.

See this link for information about the song:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Hope_(song)

About one of the authophttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Wickham

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear -- Edmund Hamilton Sears

This poet evidently felt a bit like he was suspended between two realities – one that was visible, and another that he saw and heard with the eye of faith and wanted others to pause and recognize. Edmund Hamilton Sears wrote “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” in 1849 as the Christmas season was upon him and others in Massachusetts (see its seal here). It wasn’t just a Christmas merrymaking sentiment that was on his mind, however. Were the words he crafted also the thoughts of a friend who coaxed Edmund to write something for an upcoming celebration? Were one or both of these men contemplating and feeling anxious about other circumstances in the land in which they lived? One or both of them wanted their fellow men to overcome earthbound troubles by listening to angel voices, a tonic that Edmund recommended at the end of each of his verses.

  

Edmund Sears was a 39-year old Unitarian minister who nevertheless believed not just in the one God – a central tenet of Unitarianism – but also in Christ. So, when asked by a friend (William Lunt), who was also a minister, to craft something to commemorate the Christmas season, Sears agreed. Perhaps he imagined the angel chorus singing about Jesus’ birth, inspiring the many varied references to angels providing music to fascinate humanity and calm events terrestrially. There are hints in Edmund’s poetry that he was pondering conditions prevalent at the time, situations that caused no small amount of concern. It was 1849, and gold rush fever had struck, so was that on Edmund’s mind as he penned the words ‘…the age of gold’ in his last verse? Many have also speculated that the growing polarization of the issue of American slavery and the oncoming Civil War compelled Edmund’s words about ‘Peace on Earth’ (v.1), and ‘the woes of sin and strife’, and ‘man, at war with man’ (v.3). This Unitarian minister’s deep-felt desire for unity is plain throughout his poem, especially as he envisions all earth’s inhabitants pausing to listen to the heavenly creatures’ quiet but penetrating strains. Did the people of Sears’ era on that Christmas in 1849 grasp his meaning? Indeed, though the lack of peace has often betrayed the Christian believer’s disobedience to this foundational principle – peace, harmony with fellow mortals – maybe the delay of war for another 12 years suggests many heard and joined in singing Sears’ words with sincerity for a time.

Do the angels still bend over the earth, looking over you and me, today? Frankly, many corners of the planet might grunt negatively, if asked this. Conflict is normal, someone might even say ‘human’, while Charity is divine, otherworldly. Edmund Sears, judging by what he wrote, probably would have agreed. Did that mean he was a pessimist, unable to vocalize a hopeful note? His song is a resounding ‘no’ to that question. He saw what was going on around himself, but chose to look deeper and listen for the song others could not hear. Maybe that tuned his ears and allowed his eyes to perceive more and more the angels’ song. Don’t wait until the Christmas season to try out this Christmas song.   

Information on the song was obtained from the books  Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990, Kregel Publications; 101 More Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1985, 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.; Then Sings My Soul, by Robert J. Morgan, 2003, Thomas Nelson, Inc.   

See also this site: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/i/t/c/itcameup.htm

What a Mighty God We Serve – Anonymous

It’s called ‘traditional’, or ‘folk music’, or even ‘African folk music’ in some hymnals. There’s not much more that could be said about “What a Mighty God We Serve” and its author, whoever that might be. It might have traveled over the Atlantic Ocean if indeed it came from the African continent to land in the American Christian vocabulary. Who is this ‘mighty God’? He’s the One called out no less than four times with this two-word phrase in scripture across many centuries (Isaiah 9:6; 10:21; Jeremiah 32:18; and Luke 22:69 – all in the New International Version translation of the bible). If another synonym for this being is ‘Almighty’, then we meet him many more times throughout the bible’s pages – 333 times (in NIV translation). Could the exercise of encountering Him so frequently have spurred this song’s anonymous author to compose? Sheer speculation, and something we’ll have to wait to confirm in another time. But, that doesn’t mean we cannot dream a little, until then.

Without more details of the development of “What a Mighty God…”, there’s many possibilities for how the author/s devised its words. The words of its refrain regarding ‘angels (that) bow before Him’, and ‘heaven and earth (that) adore Him’ offer clues that suggest the invention happened as people read of Him in episodes in which He was acknowledged by these actors. Where do read that angels adore the Almighty? Try out Isaiah 6:3 or Revelation 4:8, and think if maybe that might connect us to the author of the song, seeing Him declared as the Omnipotent One by beings who were created to serve Him. What about heaven and earth adoring Him? Psalm 65:8 and that Isaiah 6:3 verse again may likewise connect us to the author’s motivation for writing the poetry of “What a Mighty God…”.  Was there also a community of believing people where the author lived, since he wrote about a ‘we’ serving Him? We’ll know the answers someday.  

He’s known by so many names, but the ones that count for us as mortal people especially are the ones that tell of His power. I count on Him having the ability to raise me, the way He did Lazarus, despite the skeptics who were nearby at that moment (John 11). He creates, and He restores the decayed so that it’s like brand new. He proved this in His own life and resurrection, so that I’m fixed on Him and what He can and will do for me. That’s Easter, in a nutshell. Happy Resurrection Day 2019!   

See this link for a discussion of folk music in its many forms and origins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_music