Every so often, a contemporary Christian song comes along that is so well written and so well performed that it simply blows you away. These are songs you can listen to over and over again and they never get old. In my opinion, this is one of those songs; I love this song. It is a bit long, yet it is ripe with Scripture. This is a longer analysis too, so most of the Scripture is just annotated; I would grab your Bible.
This song progresses through God’s creation, peaks at Jesus’ death on the cross, and ends with Jesus’ resurrection and love for us. This song is all about God’s awesome work of art; His love story for us all. God, in His infinite wisdom and power, and out of His unfailing and unconditional love, perfectly created everything, including each and every one of us. The Bible tells us that His creation sings His praises and obeys His commands. The title of the song speaks to what our response should be; that we sing His praises in thanksgiving, all the days of our lives.
The song begins:
“God of creation, there at the start before the beginning of time. With no point of reference, You spoke to the dark and fleshed out the wonder of light.”
This speaks to the first day of God’s creation, when He created light and separated it from darkness, calling them day and night respectively. (Genesis 1:1-5). Before anything existed, only God did. He is eternal, meaning He has no beginning or end. With just His Almighty Words, He simply spoke and created everything, known and unknown.
On the second day, God created the expanse known as the heavens and separated its waters from the waters that would form the earth. (Genesis 1:6-8). On the third day, He gathered earth together and formed dry land, and created all the vegetation of the earth, according to its kind. (Genesis 1:9-13).
The song continues:
“And as You speak, a hundred billion galaxies are born. In the vapor of Your breath the planets form.”
This speaks to the fourth day of God’s creation, when He created the sun, moon, and stars to rule over the daytime and the nighttime. God created them in order to create seasons for us, as well as for us to be able to see His holy signs in the sky. (Genesis 1:14-19). The most well-known sign is the Star of Bethlehem, which announced Jesus’ birth as the Messiah and triggered the Magi to travel a long way to worship Him. (Matthew 1:18 – 2:23).
The song continues:
“If the stars were made to worship, so will I. I can see Your heart in everything You’ve made; every burning star, a signal fire of grace. If creation sings Your praises, so will I.”
Even the stars worship God’s name, so we should too. “He determines the number of stars; He gives to all of them their names.” (Psalm 147:4 ESV). “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” (Psalm 19:1 ESV). “I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.” (Psalm 104:33 ESV).
The song continues:
“God of Your promise. You don’t speak in vain, no syllable empty or void. For once You have spoken, all nature and science, follow the sound of Your voice.”
When God speaks, His Word is the ultimate power and He does not speak in vain. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My Word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11 ESV).
God’s power and might is unmatchable and unsearchable. (Romans 11:33). He created our ability to observe and discover things through science. Look at anything in nature and you will be filled with awesome wonder at how He created it so amazingly. We should give Him all our worship and praise. “Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by Your Will they existed and were created.” (Revelation 4:11 ESV).
The song continues:
“And as You speak, a hundred billion creatures catch Your breath, evolving in pursuit of what You said. If it all reveals Your nature, so will I. I can see Your heart in everything You say; every painted sky, a canvas of Your grace. If creation still obeys You, so will I.”
This speaks to the fifth and sixth days of creation. On the fifth day, God created all the fish in the sea and all the birds of the air, according to their kinds. (Genesis 1:20-23 ESV). On the sixth day, God created all land-dwelling creatures, according to their kinds. He then created the pinnacle of His Creation: Adam and Eve. He created them in His own image and gave them dominion over all the earth. God told them to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” (Genesis 1:24-31 ESV).
God created everything with such intricate details, that it’s simply impossible to not admire it all. Sir Isaac Newton once said: “In the absence of any other proof, the thumb alone would convince me of God’s existence.” Every time I get to see our beautiful sunsets, with its red, oranges, yellows, blues, and purples, expertly painted across the evening sky, I thank God for His amazing and awesome design.
Now, I would be amiss if I didn’t address the elephant in the room – the word in this song that puts many Christians on edge: “evolving.” Many say that this one word corrupts the whole song, but I respectfully disagree. The writers are not trying to say that God created everything using evolution or that the theory of macro-evolution is correct. Take this word in context within its phrase and within the entire song, and you will see that there is no question of God’s Almighty power seen in His Creation through His perfect design.
The definition of the word “evolve” is: “to develop gradually, especially from a simple to a more complex form.” In other words, when something evolves, it changes, or develops over time. Sticking with the theme of music, a practical example that we can identify with, is the evolution of our taste in music. Most of us begin as a young child loving nursery rhymes. Yet, as we age our taste of music evolves, or changes and develops, into a much different preference.
The word “evolve” comes from the Latin word “evolvere,” which means “to unroll.” The image of unrolling is the perfect image to use when thinking of the word evolve. During creation, God created all creatures of the sea, air, and land (including plants) according to their kinds. That means that God created groups of plants and animals to be able to adapt, and that over the course of time, they have “unrolled” (or developed) into the species and sub-species that we can observe today. In other words, God created everything to be able to work in accordance to the principle of micro-evolution.
The song continues:
“If the stars were made to worship, so will I. If the mountains bow in reverence, so will I. If the oceans roar Your greatness, so will I. For if everything exists to lift You high, so will I. If the wind goes where You send it, so will I. If the rocks cry out in silence, so will I. If the sum of all our praises still falls shy, then we’ll sing again a hundred billion times.”
This song builds from just the stars worshiping God into all of God’s creation doing so: the stars, mountains, oceans, and wind are all made to worship Him. And even if we won’t worship God, His Creation will; even the rocks will cry out His praises in our silence. This is a reference to when Jesus was riding the donkey’s colt into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. His disciples were rejoicing and praising Him loudly and proudly. Some Pharisees told Jesus to rebuke them and His response was: “I tell you, if [My disciples] were silent, the very stones would cry out.” (Luke 19:40 ESV).
The song continues:
“God of salvation, You chased down my heart through all of my failure and pride. On a hill You created, the light of the world, abandoned in darkness to die.”
This is the part of the song where it switches from God’s creation singing His praises, to His work of salvation for us that we find only in Jesus. God will chase after our hearts, minds, and souls for all of our lives; claiming us as His own and doing everything in His power to prevent us from being snatched up by Satan. (John 10:28-29). He chases after us, despite our failures and our sinful pride, forgiving them through His sacrifice on the cross and giving us everlasting life in Him. (Colossians 2:6-15). However, He cannot save us if we reject His freely given grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love.
The hill God created refers to Calvary, also known as Golgotha, which means “The Place of the Skull.” (Matthew 27:33, Mark 15:22, Luke 23:33, and John 19:17). This is where God the Son, Jesus Christ, the Light of the world (John 8:12), was forsaken as He took all of our sin onto Himself on the cross, and died for them. (Matthew 27:45-50). During His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told His followers, that His Church is also the light of the world and that we are to let our lights shine before others so they will see Him through us. (Matthew 5:14-16).
The song continues:
“And as You speak, a hundred billion failures disappear. Where You lost Your life, so I could find it here. If You left the grave behind You, so will I. I can see Your heart in everything You’ve done; every part designed in a work of art called love. If You gladly chose surrender, so will I.”
This part of the song is absolutely beautiful and pulls on the strings of my heart, especially remembering my own countless failures towards God. And it brings me to tears of joy, every time I hear it. This is in reference to what’s known as “the Great Exchange.” Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would be pierced, crushed, chastened, and scourged for our transgressions in order to heal and save us. (Isaiah 53:5). “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV).
Jesus willfully suffered and died for all of our sins because He loves us with an unfailing and unconditional love. He also rose from the dead and defeated death, once and for all, all out of His love for us. Our sin died with Him and we were buried with Him in our baptisms. In the end, we will be raised from the dead, like He was raised. (Romans 6:1-5). Jesus clothed us with His righteousness, saving us from eternal death in hell.
The song continues:
“I can see Your heart eight billion different ways; every precious one, a child You died to save. If You gave Your life to love them, so will I.”
The “eight billion” refers to the approximate population on earth today. God created every human in His image and Jesus came to die and rise again for the sins of us all; He did not come to die for just the righteous, but for sinners; so, all of us. (Luke 5:32 and Romans 3:23). However, not everyone will be saved because many will reject His freely given grace, mercy, forgiveness, and love. He constantly calls us to return to Him and put our trust in Him as our Lord and Savior. Those who do not reject Him are adopted as His children, and are therefore eternally saved. And because He loved us first, we are commanded to love one another. (1 John 4:7-21).
The song concludes:
“Like You would again a hundred billion times. But what measure could amount to Your desire? You’re the One who never leaves the one behind.”
I understand that Jesus would die for our sins 100 billion times over, if He was required to. But Jesus only had to die for our sins ONCE. His one death, His one burial, and His one resurrection, all defeated sin, death, and the devil for all time, once and for all people. (Romans 6:10). God’s desire for us is for us to be raised up to heaven to dwell with Him forever. (Ephesians 2:6-7). This is only possible through belief in Jesus and repentance. God’s grace and mercy, through faith in Him, is how we can repent. The word “repent” means “to turn back.” In other words, to repent is to turn away from our sin and turn back to God.
Jesus left us with a purpose in life when He said: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34 ESV). So, go tell all who will hear His Gospel message (Matthew 28:19-20), and worship Him in all His glory with thanksgiving and praise. (Psalm 100:4-5). The reference to the parable of the lost sheep (Matthew 18:12-14) is a very suitable way to end this wonderfully written and performed song.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Philip Frank
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