Friday, June 20, 2008

Not a Kid's Song Anymore

I don't know about you, but I remember singing "Put Your Hand in the Hand..." at VBS every year and enjoying it. I thought it was way cooler than "Jesus Loves Me" and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands", which were the standard fare at VBS. But as I got older, of course, the song really didn't do anything for me anymore. As a children's song, it's cool; as a grown up song, it's kinda cheesy. I was somewhat disappointed in this because I really liked the melody. Oh well...another children's song lost to adulthood...

...until, that is, I heard Donny Hathaway sing it. Of course, Donny Hathaway could probably make any song sound good; but this song takes on a whole new dimension in his hands. When you hear him sing "Put you Hand in the Hand of the Man...", you realize what a powerful song it really is. He takes a great children's song and transforms it into an awesome spiritual! Just by the emotion of his voice and the arrangement of the music (and his lyrical liberty), he makes this song speak to the hearts of those who know this Man of Galilee; and to those who have only been introduced to Him. In Donny's hands, I again want to walk with this Man and talk with this Man, and to let this Man take my hand and guide me wherever He wishes. In Donny's hands, this song speaks powerfully of the strength and care of this Man to a weak and hurting soul. With the soulful musicianship and heartfelt voice of Donny, this song has once again transcended the simplicity of its message. If this song doesn't make you want to get up and praise the Lord, I think you may be dead already!

3 comments:

Dr. Russell Norman Murray said...

Rush: Replay x 3 DVD--Awesome!

I agree, ESL.:)

Russ

Dr. Russell Norman Murray said...

Oh, btw, I met Kevin Vanhoozer in Edinburgh and he would have accepted me as his PhD student, except he was going back to TEDS to work.

All the best with the blog.

Great Googly Moogly! said...

Hey thanks for the comments. I used to write on my Yahoo 360 page, but "life" got in the way. Now I've found myself with more time and I like to write so....

I have a fairly large collection of concert DVD's, but I seem to find myself constantly coming back to my Rush (and King Crimson). I really enjoy watching these guys perform!

Vanhoozer is one of my favorite authors (along with Cornelius Plantinga, as I'm sure you've noticed). He has a great handle on the redemptive-historical trajectory of the Scripture and the importance of a Biblical hermeneutic. His writings can be weighty at times (at least to me), but well worth the effort of ploughing through!

Thanks again!