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I just love this song. It strikes such a wonderful blend between lyrics that really nail these dark questions we often have about God and a wonderful duet with a melody that is both haunting and searching. We recorded this song way back in 2001 for our first worship CD. I had one of the ladies in our group, Trish Morlan (now Trish Homan) to sing along with me and she was amazing.
The lyric is based off of the historical story of Elijah as told in 1 Kings 18-19. There, the prophet Elijah has openly confronted evil in the time of King Ahab, after accurately prophesying a 3 year drought. Yet, after that great spiritual victory, we are told in chapter 19 that as soon as the King and his wife Jezebel decided to kill Elijah…rather than standing his ground in the confidence of God….Elijah ran for his life.
We might have done the same thing, but remember, Elijah had just called out fire from heaven (1 Kings 18:37-38) in front of this same king. After that kind of display, it would seem Elijah would have been more brave. In any account, after he ran for his life into hiding, God confronts him.
There we are told of a very famous encounter with God where first Elijah sees a massive windstorm, then an earthquake and finally powerful fire…and yet God was not in those displays. We are told instead that “after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper.” And in that whisper was the voice of God who ministered to Elijah.
So, the song recounts how we are all like that. We want to see some powerful display of God in order to have confidence that he really did appear, that he really does care. Yet, God does not appear always in such loud or apparent ways, but rather shows up in a quiet whisper.
In that whisper, He tells us that He is there for us…both as the Father and as our Friend. As you spend time this Maundy Thursday (or maybe you are reading/listening on Good Friday), I hope you enjoy the song.