New Song for Sunday -- It Is Him

As many of you know, we’ve been learning this new song over the last few weeks at evening service. We will be singing it on Sunday and, as has become our pattern, we’ve made a little recording for you (especially those who have not been able to sing it on Sunday evenings) so we can all sing it together. Along with the recording, I thought I’d share a few quick thoughts about the song.

The song is basically drawing on themes from Ephesians 2 and some from chapter 3. You’ll probably notice those this coming Sunday. If you read chapter 2 (and 3, especially the prayer), and compare it to the song, you’ll see all those themes emerge.

You may remember that when we were in Ephesians 2:1-8, we used a translation from a professor/pastor’s commentary on Ephesians (Dr. Steven Baugh; professor at Westminster in California). A fresh translation can sometimes help us hear passages that have become too familiar for us. One particular part of his translation stuck out to me. It’s in Eph 2:5 where he translates: “even though we were dead in our transgressions—it was us he co-made alive with the Messiah…”

That little “it was us” is seeking to highlight something Paul is emphasizing: the same people who rebelled against God, who were dead in sin, who continued to pursue the things of the world and went after things that were against God (Eph 2:1-3)… are the same people that he has made alive in Christ, saved them by his grace and seated them with Christ in the heavenly places. To say that God’s love and mercy are “great” is an understatement!

Anyway, I took that little clause and sought to write a hymn with it. If you read through the words, you’ll notice a few things. There is a constant back-n-forth between who God is and who we were. I have kept the “It is him” in the present tense to emphasize that this is who God is toward us all the time. There are things he has done, is doing and will do, but this is who he is. He doesn’t change. Also, I have kept the “It was us” in the past tense to emphasize that, in a wonderful sense, we are no longer the same people we were before the Lord reached down and saved us by his grace. Yes, we still sin against the Lord, but it’s not who we truly are anymore (think Romans 7). We are his new creation. This is something that Paul is hammering home in his letter to the Ephesians and it will be the basis for what he has to say in chapters 4-6. You will also notice that the last verse departs from the back-n-forth so that the emphasis of the hymn balances and finishes on the Lord.

Lastly, there has been a running joke of the choice to use the informal grammar of “it is him…” We all know that “it is he” is more proper and formal, but the use of the informal gives a better sense of what the song is trying to convey. You’ll notice that “it was us” is also informal. It should be “it was we,” but that sounds terrible! So I apologize to those whose grammar alarm goes off during the song. :-)

Here is the lead sheet. For those that like to play along, please note that though the lead sheet is in C, we are singing it in B. That’s mainly because the musicians love the key of B. Just ask them!

See you all Sunday!