Wherever You Go by Mike Crawford at Jacobs Well is the most beautiful and honest song I have heard in a very long time. Period. In August, Isaac Anderson preached on Psalms 121 with a message entitled: Song For Fragile People (We Know Who We Are) and to paraphrase: “If this Psalm isn’t true, we are all screwed.” This is the best sermon I have ever heard and trust me, with my evangelical upbringing, I have sat through my fair share of sermons. Go here for the sermon audio: www.jacobswellchurch.org/sermon_audio
There is so much that I love about this message, but my main focus is this: At the end, he says: “This Psalm is for the sleepless, the sick, the single parents, the heartbroken, the helpless, the stressed out, the unemployed, the underpaid, the lonely, the terrified, the guilty, the numb. This Psalm is for anyone whose life is fragile.” (Hence, it is for us all, whether we need this reminder now or at a later time in our lives.) At communion, Mike sang this song, repeating what Isaac had said:
Wherever you go, there will I be.
Down south or up north
out west or back east.
Whichever direction by land or by sea.
Wherever you go there will I be….
I will be hanging around.
I will be on your side.
When it seems like I am far away…
When there is no one left to blame…
When you go astray,
no matter the place, what city or state.
Even today.
Even today.
This song/Psalm* is for the guilty and numb.
This song is for the terrified.
This song is for the stressed out.
YOU know who we are.
This song is for the unemployed.
This song is for the underpaid.
This song is for the single parents.
This song is for the fragile people.
YOU know who we are.
http://mikecrawfordmusic.com/2010/08/my-friend-isaac (Here you can find an acoustic version of the song but it is missing the “rant” that Isaac did at the end of his message, but you can get the idea.) I love the perspective in which this song is written. It’s refreshing to hear God tell me through verse, “I am NEVER going anywhere!” Instead of a sermon or song encouraging me to try and make sense of, or find strength in, or meaning during a tough situation, Isaac simply reminds us that the LORD HIMSELF watches over you. I look back on times in my life where I have felt lonely, stressed out, guilty, terrified: being rejected from Evangel, finding out I was pregnant, taking care of a 2-year-old little boy who had been beaten to a vegetated state by his own mother, standing in the middle of my bedroom up to my ankles in sewer water, watching my mom grieve and slip into a difficult depression (enter your own moment here) and I Thank God that he DID and he DOES know exactly what I am going through.
“I know everything about your life. I am aware. I am not asleep. I am watching over you, HANG IN THERE; I AM RIGHT THERE WITH YOU.”
*For all intent and purposes, throughout this blog, use the word “Psalm” and “Song” interchangeably.
