Who You Say I Am -- Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan

 

Ben Fielding and Reuben Morgan were probably at or nearby a church in Sydney, Australia (at the Hillsong Convention Centre, see the picture) where they were ministers in 2017 when they wrote a song that they thought was especially needed by young people trying to overcome anxiety. “Who You Say I Am” – that’s what Ben and Reuben reminded them, and also those of us who are older (!), about how security and peace-of-mind is captured. Identity. If one word could sum up what these two thought God’s Son was saying to skeptics two thousand years ago, that would be it. With that certainty of identity comes certainty of one’s destiny, too. But even Jesus, the Son who brings this identity to those He made, must have realized during the extended debate with those skeptics that convincing people would be difficult. ‘Do you want to get well?’ (John 5:6), Jesus had once asked a lame man; and so, is He likewise asking you and me, ‘Do you want to be free of anxiety?’ Just believe in Him, and how you are connected to Him…that’s the solution, straight from your Creator’s mouth.

 

Ben’s and Reuben’s efforts actually yielded two songs – ‘Be Still’ and ‘Who You Say I Am’ – as they sought to provide young people reassurance, an indication at the depth of confusion that often accompanies anxiety. The cynics with whom Jesus was trying to reason were also confused, and though some believed, they still seemed very puzzled at Jesus’ claims about Himself. ‘I’m here to set you free’ (John 8:36) is a paraphrase of what He wanted to do for them. And yet they reacted as if they thought there must be another answer, and ultimately attempted to kill this freedom-bringer (John 8:59). Ben Fielding says he shared this story from scripture with the church in Sydney, including the words of Jesus about His coming to set slaves free, an assertion that he and Reuben underscored in the song’s lyrics. Some people who are limited in their spirits by earthbound conventional thinking, like those skeptics Jesus confronted, would no doubt contend ‘I’m not a slave!’ But, Reuben and Ben say with their poetry that if you’re ‘lost’ (v.1), or are a ‘slave to sin’ (v.2), Jesus has come to free you. He’s ‘brought (you) in’ (v.1); made you ‘a child of God’ (refrain); ‘ransomed (you)’, and made this transaction ironclad by ‘(dying) for (you)’ (v.2). ‘Free indeed’ (refrain), these two Aussie songwriters say with conviction, over and over again, as if they understand that these words might be difficult for some people loaded down with guilt and suspicion to accept. You can be certain that there’s a place for you in the ‘Father’s house’, that you ‘are chosen’, and that He’s ‘for (you), not against (you)’, they say elsewhere in the song. Ben concludes in an interview about the song by saying identity = ‘knowing ourselves in Christ’, and that in this knowledge comes a ‘stability’ for life.          

 

Am I willing to accept the title words of this song by Ben and Reuben, that I am ‘Who You (Jesus) Say I Am? A book in our 21^st Century (Now, Discover Your Strengths, authors Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton) has suggested that professionals in all organizations can maximize their abilities by knowing and zeroing in on their specific character identities. That’s how you improve an organization’s professional health, according to them. In Jesus’ day, some of the sick tried to get healthy by jumping into a miraculous pool of water (at Bethesda, John 5:7), while other Jews argued with Jesus and wished Him dead, when He told them how to find their true identities and achieve spiritual health. Jesus was eventually executed, but He came out of that grave, and so can you and I. There’s a lot to appreciate about freedom in an earthly place where you and I live every day. But, there’s lots that enslaves too, not least of which is that inevitable grave, the same one Jesus conquered. There’s a way through this, if you’ll listen to what Ben and Reuben remind you that Jesus can do. He wants you. Be free in Jesus.  

  

 

The song’s story is here: Who You Say I Am by Hillsong Worship - Songfacts   and here:  #941 - "Who You Say I Am" by Hillsong Worship | BEHIND THE SONG WITH KEVIN DAVIS | NewReleaseToday

See some information about the song here: Who You Say I Am (song) - Wikipedia 

 

See Hillsong Convention Centre image information here: File:Hillsong Convention Centre.jpg - Wikimedia Commons.  This work has been released into the public domain by its author, Tatie2189. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: Tatie2189 grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

I Exalt Thee – Anonymous, and Pete Sanchez, Jr.

 

It was an ‘out-of-body’ experience. This, from a 20^th Century songwriter, was how Pete Sanchez described what happened to him one Sunday morning in Houston (see that city’s seal here) in the mid-1970s. What Pete was reading was many centuries from the time when some anonymous songwriter first penned the words “I Exalt Thee”; while he was trying to recapture the moment when these special words were first written, could it be that Pete’s reaction was similar to that of the original poet? The scenes this poet saw seemed almost otherworldly, breathtaking in how they spoke of a God whose creation acknowledged Him as the Supreme Being, the Master to whom all things must answer. Indeed, if Pete was sensing the Spirit move while he sat at a piano, he surely must have read the other words in the same body of work that the ancient poet used, words that called out to a believer sitting in an apartment in south Texas at a piano. As the psalmist (Psalm 97) began and ended his ode to God, the joy of which he wrote seemed to envelop Pete Sanchez, until he felt something almost indescribable.

 

Joy (Psalm 97:1, 8, 11-12) infuses the verses that Pete first read, culminating for him in one particular verse that spoke deeply to him. Pete was in the middle of a quest to craft contemporary songs for each of the psalms when he picked up Psalm 97 one day; perhaps he could not have imagined the months-long journey he was about to take. Upon reflection, Pete says he hadn’t really intended to take what he first played one day in his apartment beyond own piano keyboard. This was supposed to be personal. His first effort at Psalm 97 yielded verse 9’s contents, because Pete felt this was calling out to him intently.   Maybe it was the way that the ancient anonymous poet juxtaposed the joy-inducing vision of God throughout the entire psalm’s 12 verses with the terror at the Almighty’s glory and power in those who instead worship idols. Images of ‘fire…consuming foes’ (v. 3 of Ps. 97); of the ‘earth tremb(ling)’ before Him (v.4); of ‘mountains melt(ing) like wax’ (v. 5) speak of a God who cannot be tamed – he’s a fearsome God, one with whom we cannot trifle. Conversely, for ‘Zion’ and ‘the villages of Judah’ (v. 8), there is rejoicing, and the assurance that He ‘guards’ and ‘delivers’ the ‘faithful ones’ (v. 10); that He embodies, above all, a righteousness that draws us to be like Him (vv. 2, 6, and 11-12). It seems that Pete Sanchez received something anew that day when he read the psalmist’s 12 verses, a joy for himself that he found standing upon the foundation of verse 9 – that He is ‘the Most High, exalted above all (other) gods’. And yet, it was not yet complete in that one sitting for Pete, nor would it be in the next several attempts. For six months, Pete wrestled with his incomplete invention without resolution, until one April 1976 Sunday morning. It was like he walked into a’ new room’ he says, an ‘eternal moment’ that induced ‘chills’, when he just sang the simple words that became the song’s title. Weeks later, this episode repeated itself at a music conference, as the assembled group in a room responded with spontaneous exuberance, coaxing Pete that his personal experience with Psalm 97 should be shared more broadly.     

 

Look at what Pete found in Psalm 97; a psalm that has been described as an ‘orphan’ because so little of its background is known to historians. No author is identified, and no information is provided in the superscription (below the title) to tell us what musical details accompanied the poetry. It’s just the words, the poetry, that guides what I should think of my relationship with the eternal God that the psalmist was trying to offer. Another 33 of these ‘orphans’ are among the 150 Psalms for you and me to consume. Orphans, unfortunately, are too often disadvantaged or worse in human culture, but Pete found there was something in what this anonymous writer said centuries ago that struck a chord in his spirit. Kinda makes you wonder what the other ‘orphans’ might say, doesn’t it?         

 

 

See the song story here: Dr. Pete Sanchez | I Exalt Thee Song Story [Gateway Worship Training] (youtube.com) (story begins at 2:00 of video)

 

Also see the song story in the book Celebrate Jesus: The Stories behind Your Favorite Praise and Worship Songs, by Phil Christensen and Shari MacDonald, Kregel Publications, 2003.

 

See NIV Study Bible, general editor Kenneth Barker and associate editors Donald Burdick, John Stek, Walter Wessel, and Ronald Youngblood, Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1985.

See information on the seal of Houston here: File:Seal of Houston, Texas.svg - Wikimedia Commons. The seal’s author died in 1864, so 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. 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, 1929.