Stories Behind the Song - February 15, 2009

"Forever"

The song "Forever" was written by Chris Tomlin and is based out of Psalm 136. This song is a song of thanksgiving and praise. Notice the structure of the first verse:

"Give thanks to the Lord, our God and King.
His love endures forever.
For He is good, He is above all things.
His love endures forever.
Sing praise, sing praise."

The verses of this song lists the different things that God does for us, as well as His different attributes, and then call on us, as the singers, to sing praise to God in thanksgiving for what He has done for us. You will find that the Psalmist follows a similar structure in Psalm 136: "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods! His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords. His love endures forever." (Psalm 136:1-3)The writer of this Psalm was Hezekiah. He wrote this Psalm as a response to the Lord thanking him for delivering Him from a deadly illness. Certainly God has delivered us from something in our own lives. As we sing this song this week, think about what God has delivered you from, and praise Him for His faithfulness!

"Everlasting God"

This song is based out of Isaiah 40:28-31, and is written by a songwriter named Brenton Brown. The frequent use of words such as strength, weary, and weak is intentional. In many ways, this song is Brown's personal testimony. Brenton was diagnosed in 2003 with a condition called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a rare ailment that leaves its victims constantly tired and weary, and not even able to find comfort by extra sleep. As Brenton writes the words, "Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord," he is putting to paper what is a reality in His life. He daily waits upon the Lord to give Him the strength to fulfill the tasks he needs to do. As we sing this song this week, think about where you are drawing your strength from each day. Is it from the Lord and His Word, or are you living in your own power?

"The Solid Rock"

The words to this song were written in 1834 by Edward Mote. Mote had this to say about the story behind the song: "One morn­ing it came into my mind as I went to la­bour, to write an hymn on the ‘Gra­cious Ex­per­i­ence of a Christ­ian.’ As I went up Hol­born I had the chor­us, ‘On Christ the solid Rock I stand,All other ground is sinking sand.’In the day I had four first vers­es com­plete, and wrote them off. On the Sab­bath fol­low­ing I met bro­ther King as I came out of Lisle Street Meet­ing…who in­formed me that his wife was ve­ry ill, and asked me to call and see her. I had an ear­ly tea, and called af­ter­wards. He said that it was his usu­al custom to sing a hymn, read a por­tion, and en­gage in pray­er, be­fore he went to meet­ing. He looked for his hymn-book but could find it no­where. I said, ‘I have some vers­es in my pock­et; if he liked, we would sing them.’ We did, and his wife en­joyed them so much, that af­ter ser­vice he asked me, as a fa­vour, to leave a co­py of them for his wife. I went home, and by the fire­side com­posed the last two vers­es, wrote the whole off, and took them to sis­ter King…As these vers­es so met the dy­ing wo­man’s case, my at­ten­tion to them was the more ar­rest­ed, and I had a thou­sand print­ed for dis­tr­ibu­tion."

This song was originally used to bring comfort to a dying woman, and has comforted many since its writing with the knowledge that our hope is not in ourselves, but in the Rock of Ages and Chief Cornerstone, Jesus Christ! As we sing this song this week, thank the Lord for being your Rock.

"I Need Thee Every Hour"

The words to this song were written by Annie Hawks, and the tune was composed by her pastor, Dr. Robert Lowry. As the story goes, Mrs. Hawks had dabbled in poetry writing in her younger years, and had quite a way with words. Dr. Lowry encouraged her to use her talent to begin writing songs for children's Sunday School. This song came one June morning in 1872 as Mrs. Hawks was going about her tasks of being a mother to 3, and became immediately overwhelmed with the thought of the constant presence of Jesus Christ in her life. She sat down to write the words, and wrote 6 beautiful verses of poetry. Dr. Lowry wrote the tune the following Sunday, and this hymn has become Hawks' most well known hymn out of the 600 plus songs she has written. It also came to mean a great deal to her when her husband passed away 17 years after the writing of this song. She realized her great need for Jesus not only in the good times, but in the valleys of life as well. As we sing this song this week, examine your own heart. Are you relying on your own abilities and powers? If so, make this hymn your heartfelt plea to the Lord.

"The Heart of Worship"

This song was written by one of today's most foremost songwriters, Matt Redman. Matt is originally from the United Kingdom, but has recently moved to Atlanta to plant a church with Louie Giglio, founder of Passion Ministries, and Chris Tomlin. This song came out of a difficult time in the church Matt was serving in Britain. In the fall of 1996, Matt's pastor felt that their church was just going through the motions when it came to their times of congregational worship. Yes, songs were being sung, but the hearts of those singing them were far from God. Those worshiping had become spectators of corporate worship, and not participators. The leadership made the difficult decision to remove all of the musicians, and to do without music for a while. The following period was very difficult and certainly awkward at first, but the learning and growing process that took place among the church's members was well worth the effort.

The first Sunday the band returned back to worship, Matt Redman sang this song. Think about what great meaning the first verse must have had: "When the music fades, all is stripped away and I simply come. Longing just to bring something that's of worth that will bless Your heart. I'll bring you more than a song for a song in itself is not what You have required. You search much deeper within, through the way things appear. You're looking into my heart." This song is a song of deep conviction, and I pray it will cause each of us to see our deep need for Jesus, as the song preceding has called us to do, and make each of us desire to make Jesus Christ alone the center and object of our worship each and every day!