Today I am continuing the slow journey through the new EP “Open Hands.” These songs are all born of personal experience, moments of tragedy and triumph. They are the shouts and whispers of a soul in worship. “Hold to You” was written with my publisher set us up to co-write. The creative process of co-writing never works the exact same way twice but it usually starts the way this session did. We took some time to hear one-another’s story. I think we both wandered into this day with an urgency to say something that matters, to sing something that matters about the God we worship.
We started the song from the same premise as “No One Like Our God.” I was struck several years ago in China by the repeated use of the phrase “One Most High God” to describe Yahweh. In that religious context there was a distinct effort among followers of Jesus to differentiate between the “gods” that are receiving worship and the One Most High God who is uniquely deserving of worship. Our direction was to talk about a God who is deserving of worship in a way that is larger than our circumstances. “In the hurt and the healing…You are most high.” If Yahweh truly is “Most High” then surely those who follow God have a sure and unshakable foundation to Hold tightly. In the face of any circumstance we can hold to the Most High.
Until the final week of the recording process, the working title of this record was “Ashes & Anthems.” The album cover that never was is posted to the right. That title came from the second verse of this song and is one of my favorite lyrics on this project. It continues to prove true in my life and in the eternal narrative of God’s providence. “You have carried Your children through fire and flood and from the ashes spring anthems to the Most High.”