The Bible and Music

Through our assembly of research on music containing Biblical allusions, including contemporary Christian artist, “Whom Shall I Fear” by Chris Tomlin stood out to me during one of our last classes. I had not heard the song in quite some time, but remembered most of the lyrics as it started to play. The way memories are able to be brought back to us through music is fascinating, but that is a blog post for another time. I feel this class might be a bit more difficult to connect to had it not been for my upbringing with these songs, or influence of faith/spirituality in my life overall. However, Professor McGrath makes important points when analyzing the impact music and the Bible have on each other, including artist taking words directly out of the Bible and setting them to music.

With Professor McGrath’s guidance, our class was able to see the origin of these lyrics that were taken from the Bible. Not only is this a lyric in the song, but a portion of the extended title as well: “God of Angel Armies,” happens to come from Psalm 84:1. This directly states, “What a beautiful home, God of the Angel Armies!” It is not the only part of the song coming from the Bible, however. At the end of the first verse, the lyrics are “It cannot hide the light” with “it” referring to darkness or fear. In Matthew 5:15, also linked to the children’s song “This Little Light of Mine,” the words “Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house” are identified. So far in this song, Tomlin has created an image of God being a helpful and caring figure in his life.

When the song title “Whom Shall I Fear” comes up after the first verse, it actually originates from Psalm 27:1 with, “The Lord is my light and my salvation- whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life- of whom shall I be afraid?” While this might be the part of the song most directly identified with the Bible, there is more allusion to it than some might think.

The second verse is “You crush the enemy / Underneath my feet / You are my sword and shield / Though troubles linger still.” Parts of this verse come from Romans 16:20: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” and portions of Ephesians 6:10-18: “Also, pick up the shield of faith… And take the sword of the Holy Spirit. The sword is God’s word.” Something that bothers me about this verse is it makes commitment to God and faith seem like it must contain fear, enemies, and violence. Even thought this might bring comfort to some that God will be their protector, I do not feel God intended us to perceive His as having this kind of vehemence for those against Him. As Professor McGrath mentioned in class, who might be the enemy the narrator is referring to?

Moving along with the order of the song, the words “The one who reigns forever / He is a friend of mine” appear. God’s reign taking place throughout eternity can be found in Psalm 146:10, which goes “The Lord will reign forever, Your God, O Zion, to all generations.” I am a huge fan of the concept of time, because no one truly knows when things as we know it will end, except perhaps God Himself, which is why these lyrics are so important. To my understanding, the person singing this song intends to show they have total trust God will take care of them forever, especially when they clarify they are friends with Him. Nowhere in the Bible is it clearly stated that God is to be perceived as a friend, but this understanding of assurance to one another is a nice touch to the song, in my opinion.

A few more lyrics that stuck out to me were “You hold the whole world in your hands.” This too could be related to another children’s song which is, “He’s got the Whole World in His Hands.” They can both be connected to “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand” from Isaiah 40:12. Although it is not specifically the world in His hands, the intention of this lyric is to state that all creation (which would not be possible without water) came from God’s careful doing.

Diving into a song with what might have seemed to contain only one Biblical allusion proved to be more than just a short write up of where the majority of its inspiration came from. “Whom Shall I Fear” was more of a repetition of phrases from the Bible than I had thought. I hope it was on your Scavenger Hunt list, because it should be worth more than just one point for all of its Biblical allusions.