This song is a declaration of the otherness of God. It speaks of his awesomeness, using the last two verses of Jude. It also talks about our standing before Him, how he has forgiven us and brought us into adoption, and how he has given us a future hope. I often use it as one of the first couple of songs when leading a congregation in worship because it helps us to fix our eyes on God and put Him in His rightful, authoritative, place.
I love fast songs that have substance, so that was my aim in writing this song. It speaks about the different aspects of Jesus, from creation of the world to dying on a cross, from his unknowableness to his intimate love for us. Works well as a song to wake a congregation :)
I often travel by train from Leeds to London for work and the train journey can be a fertile place for songwriting inspiration. This is one example. The song is really about how God sees us, through the light of His glory. That’s a very different picture to the one we most probably have of ourselves. God sees us as we can be, a perfect creation …. Let that sink in!
Once we start seeing ourselves as God sees us it is much easier to be that person and become the embodiment of His Kingdom, sharing His amazing unconditional love and praising Him through everything we do. To be able to love others as God loves us it helps if we can first love ourselves in the way God does.
A song about how God talks to us. If you are envious of people who relate stories of how God has spoken to them, join the club. That type of thing can be both encouraging and discouraging prompting us to think “why doesn’t God talk to me like that?” Perhaps God does and we just don’t recognise the voice.
Perhaps we are expecting thunderclaps and flashing light bulbs? Hmm …... I know God speaks to me but I often don’t realise it until some time afterwards when I have an “Oh, yeah” moment and often I don’t realise it at all.
The reality is that the Holy Spirit is whispering to us all the time “help that person, share your bread, your friend needs a hug etc etc”. And “shock, horror” the Spirit whispers to everyone, not just Christians. But the biggest revelation to me was that God speaks to us all the time through every part of his creation.
Listen to your own heartbeat and there is a whisper of God. “Every breath we take, every single heartbeat, every smile in the street” is a whisper of God’s voice. Wow!!!!!
I'm part of a worship songwriting group, the Resound 12 Song Challenge, which encourages songwriters to write a song each month. This came out of a challenge from March of 2023, whose theme was to write a song based on one of the more unusual Psalms. Psalm 65 jumped out to me, and this was the result. It's a simple song of declaration and an invitation to worship, so it works well as an opening song in a worship set.
I think it's such a powerful thing to declare Jesus as king - we join with all of heaven when we do so. This song is about turning from our sin and idols, and placing the crown on Jesus' head. It works well as a response song, and fits particularly well during communion.
Sometimes, we are a bit slow in asking God what we really want. Not Bartimaeus, he knew exactly what he wanted and shouted it out. I've tried to follow that theme in this song.
