However, as my French teacher used to say, “always expect an exception”… and that exception has arrived: Phil Wickham’s Hymn of Heaven.
How I long to breathe the air of Heaven
Where pain is gone and mercy fills the streets
To look upon the One who bled to save me
And walk with Him for all eternity
There will be a day when all will bow before Him
There will be a day when death will be no more
Standing face to face with He who died and rose again
Holy, holy is the Lord
And every prayer we prayed in desperation
The songs of faith we sang through doubt and fear
In the end, we’ll see that it was worth it
When He returns to wipe away our tears
And on that day, we join the resurrection
And stand beside the heroes of the faith
With one voice, a thousand generations
Sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain”
“Forever He shall reign”
So let it be today we shout the hymn of Heaven
With angels and the saints, we raise a mighty roar
Glory to our God who gave us life beyond the grave
Holy, holy is the Lord
So, why do I love this song so much? Speaking more generally, it is the timeliness of it. This hymn of heaven is a hymn for today. When people are comfortable, thoughts of heaven recede; but when life is overwhelmed with suffering, heaven tends to regain its lustre. Many, many people are overwhelmed today. We need a ‘hymn of heaven’ …
But let me try to be more specific with my reasons…
The longing in it
This part of the Christian testimony is easily cast aside. In the first chapter of Paul’s first letter he makes it clear. It is about ‘turning, serving … and, wait for it, waiting’ (1 Th 1.9-10). “Waiting for his Son from heaven”. There is an entire biblical vocabulary that has fallen into disuse today: waiting, groaning, thirsting, hungering, longing etc. Yep, this song captures me with its very first words.
The Jesus in it
In just a few lines, so much truth about Jesus is being affirmed. Death. Resurrection. Return. Eternity. The Saviour. The Lamb. The Reign. The Glory. Then the conviction about standing ‘face to face’ with him, about “looking upon the One who bled to save me”, about walking with him — and about worshipping him alongside others.
The preposition in it
As I say to students of preaching, these are ‘the little words that mean so much’. Here I am drawn to the ‘through’ in “the songs of faith we sang through doubt and fear”. Doubt and fear are real, debilitating for so many people — in big and small ways. The songs of faith do not help us escape doubt and fear, but to live through them. It is profound.
The pronouns in it
Sure, we can be too individualist in the way we live today. But that doesn’t mean we erase ‘I/me/my’. The Bible doesn’t leave us that as an example to follow. Here the lyrics move from a quieter, personal ‘I/me’ before becoming lost in a collective, raucous ‘we/us’ — and ‘all’. That is the way it is designed to work, as the ‘we’ transcends our own family and our local church to include the trans-cultural, trans-generational people of God.
The heroes in it
Lubricated by the global media, I recognise that the celebrity-factory is a global phenomenon. We are drawn into paying homage to successful people, again and again. It becomes wearisome. This song draws us back to the ‘heroes of the faith’ — often silent, even silenced, invisible, unknown. But we know they are out there, don’t we? The honour of ‘standing beside them’ and singing with ‘one voice’ alongside them will be one of the great thrills of heaven.
The transition in it
Ahh, the move from “there will be a day” to “so let it be today”… This is exactly it. The future making a difference to the present. We live life backwards. We start with the hope, the certainty of what is to come and it transforms our ‘today’. It just does. The dawn makes midnight endurable. The spring makes winter bearable. The prospect of breathing the air of heaven sustains us in the desperation of our prayers on earth.
The exuberance in it
The lyrics are complemented by this growing momentum in the music, becoming faster and louder, finishing with a ‘mighty roar’. I find myself caught up in it. Normally, I don’t like a performance that deflects attention from Jesus. I don’t like worship leaders who forget that they are mere conductors of the choir, not the choir itself. What about here? There is a conductor present — and I’m loving being in the choir with him. Check out the exuberance in this second version of the song:
There is every reason to be exuberant about heaven. This exuberance refreshes us as we pray — “Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven” — and then strengthens us to be part of the answer to that prayer.
It is a song for which (a symbolic) seven features seem to fit…😀
nice chatting
Paul
With this post being #20 in my Lyrics for Living series, I thought I’d gather all the links together in one place. Fabulous songs, each one nurturing my own journey over the years. So, here we go…
I love it! Both the words and the tune! I enjoyed singing it recently at our Northern/Waikato/Bay of Plenty regional Baptist leaders hui. I may well use it for our online service this Sunday. Thank you Paul for unpacking it for us!
Yes, Ken, I've wondered what it would be like in corporate worship.
Hope you are travelling well. I'm full of admiration for pastors working in lockdown.
Paul