Hello wonderful blog followers! For the past two weeks in our Sunday gatherings online, we’ve been singing a song called How Majestic is Your Name. I wrote this song in the middle of my household’s Covid-19 self-quarantine, and I thought I’d share a bit about how God spoke to me in the writing process.
The Verses
The verses go like this:
- You’re the light that leads me home
You’re my friend when I feel alone
You’re the bread I feed upon
You lead me on
You lead me on
- You’re the joy inside my heart
You’re the grace when I fall apart
You’re the name I call upon /
You lead me on
You lead me on
- When I feel my sin so strong
When my actions are all wrong
Jesus, you will be my song
You lead me on
You lead me on
To be honest, this is me reminding myself of all the things that Jesus is to me to help me through all the feels of being self-isolated! He is my light, my friend, my daily bread, my joy, my grace, the name above all names that I can call upon in times of trouble, and my song when my sin gets the best of me. I’m sure a lot of you have felt all kinds of emotions during this time. I’m hopeful that singing these verses will help remind you that Jesus is all of these things to us, and he is waiting to lead us onward.
The Chorus
The verses lead to the chorus which proclaims Jesus’ majestic name :
Jesus
How majestic is your name
All the earth will sing your praise forever
Originally this wasn’t the chorus. The original chorus was what is now the bridge. When I wrote a first draft of the song, I sent it to a couple of my songwriter friends, and they gave me feedback that said the chorus might be better as a response to Jesus for being all the things written in the verses. I totally agreed with them. Just as Scripture is centered around Jesus, I wanted this song to center around him.
As I finished reading the email giving all the feedback, I had a Bible website open and it was open to Psalm 8. The heading for Psalm 8 is “How Majestic is Your Name.” I knew that had to be the chorus of the song, so I sat down and put Psalm 8:1 into a simple chorus. My response to all the things Jesus is to me is to praise his name.
Because of the context in which I was writing the song, I still wanted to have a part where I was calling out to Jesus for help. So, what was once the chorus of the song ended up being the bridge. The lyrics are :
Be my guide
Through the mess of my worry and pride
Take me into your love
Into your open arms
Have any of you felt completely foggy in the midst of the current pandemic? I feel like I’m constantly calling out to Jesus to show me the way through this time, to show me how to best love others, and to help me through my boredom and physical distancing from others. After this part of the song was written, I took a step back to listen to God about why he had me write it.
The words that stood out were “worry” and “pride.” I realized that worry and pride are two sides of the same coin. They are both based in the idea of not trusting God. Worry stems from not trusting God, which can lead to fear that he won’t provide, or that he doesn’t love us, or that he won’t answer our prayers. Pride stems from not trusting God, which can lead to taking things into our own hands and believing that God won’t provide, or that he doesn’t love us, or that he won’t answer our prayers.
We are broken human beings, so worry and pride will always be part of each one of our stories until the Lord returns, but Jesus was sent into the world to break the chains of those sins. We can call on him to guide us through those sins because he is with us offering his love and his open arms.
Songs come alive for me when I know a bit about how or why they were written, so I hope this insight into the song helps you connect with Jesus on a deeper level. I hope the song itself leads you reflect on who Jesus is to you, but most of all acts a reminder that Jesus’ name is indeed majestic, and he is waiting to guide you through whatever it is that you’re feeling.
May God bless you during these strange times. Grace and peace always!
