Jennifer Knapp, "Martyrs and Thieves"

There are a lot of songs that I enjoy for a long time before I understand what they mean. "Martyrs and Thieves" was one of those. It didn't quite make sense until I began to understand what it was to be weak, and then it came alive for me so much that I printed out the lyrics and affixed them to my desk for encouragement.

The way I interpret it, in the first verse Jennifer writes about how one's own hopes, enemies and admirers can make a person feel weak.

There's a place in the darkness that I used to cling to,
It presses harsh hope against time.
In the absence of martyrs there's a presence of thieves
Who only want to rob you blind
They steal away any sense of peace
Though I'm a king I'm a king on my knees
And I know they are wrong when they say I am strong as the darkness covers me.


But I think Jennifer's song moves on from these painful thoughts to the humble exultation of a person who has learned that when they are weak, they are strong. The chorus proceeds:

So turn on the light and reveal all the glory
I am not afraid
To bear all my weakness, knowing in meekness
I have a kingdom to gain.

As it progesses the lyrics get more poignant, candid and eloquent. I think many a mature Christian could say, like Jennifer does, "there are ghosts from the past who've owned more of my soul than I thought I had given away." We know, and God sees that we have been "great fools" who, like the prodigal son, have "squandered 'til pallid and thin." Because of this, I too "have never been much for the baring of soul in the presence of any man." In light of the pending judgement of men, Ms. Knapp asks a question to which she knows the answer.

Could it be that my worth should depend
By the crimson stained grace on a hand?

Then, coming to the conclusion that is was never her own strength that made her worthy, the artist prays,

And like a lamp on a hill, Lord I pray in your will
To reveal all of you that I can.

Psalm 119:54 says, "Thy statues are my songs in the house of my pilgrimage." Songs like these are spiritual guideposts for me. They mark a path other believers have walked, and they help me understand what God is trying to teach me.

"Martyrs and Thieves" is on Jennifer Knapp's album Kansas, released by Gotee Records in 1998.

Hallelujah Chorus

This Christmas season I have had the privilege of enjoying several performances of the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah. Every time I hear the song, I get caught up in the elation and feel momentarily transported to another realm. People who have actually performed it tell me that at times they couldn't sing and just had to cry. I believe it!

God loves to hear beautiful music; in heaven He has surrounded himself with angels singing "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is and is to come." On earth He has commanded us to praise Him with all kinds of instruments: strings, winds, percussion, brass, and the human voice singing a new song. In heaven, I believe there will be choral music more beautiful than anything heard on earth, but on earth, when a gifted musician reaches the height of his God-given creative potential, I think it gives us a little glimpse of what heaven is going to be like.

I think the Hallelujah chorus is such a case. Even the lyrics were taken from heaven. In Revelation 19:6 John gives this account of the wedding feast of Christ: "Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.'" In chapter eleven, verse five John includes this description of his vision, "Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.'"

Amen! Merry Christmas.

Life Means So Much

Every time I hear Chris Rice's song "Life Means So Much," it makes me pause and think about how I'm spending my time.

The song begins with a drumbeat that echoes like a heartbeat, reminding me how closely my life on earth is bound to moments in time. Chris begins with the metaphor of life as a journal page: every day is a page, "every man holds a quill and ink/ And there's plenty of room for writing in all we do and believe and think." Each day we have equal opportunity to bless or curse; in the next stanza he emphasizes that equal opportunity is given to everyone - "we get twenty-four hours each." I'm reminded that time is indeed a resource that I can invest but cannot hoarde, and a gift that I appreciate by using it well.

As with many songs, the theme is expressed most clearly in the chorus:

Teach us to count the days,
Teach us to make the days count.
Lead us in better ways
Somehow our souls forgot.
Life means so much.

The chorus, I later realized, was a restatement of Psalm 90:12, "So teach us to number our days,/ That we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom."

Thanks, Chris, for "filling the page with rhyming verse" to make me wiser.

The song "Life Means So Much" is on Rice's Smell the Color 9, released by Rocketown in 2000.

Hello.

A few weeks ago I was thinking about how meaningful some christian songs were, and yet how obscure that meaning could be. I said to my husband that someone ought to be explaining them. Then a friend of mine told me about his blog, I read it and enjoyed it, and thought I might enjoy blogging to explicate certain favorite songs of mine. So hallelujah, here I go!