I’m walking through the bright white gates
Breathing in and out Your grace
All around me melodies rise
That echo with a joy inside
So I start to sing
But I can’t sing loud enough
I can’t sing loud enough
When I’m singing for You, My God
With a thunder roll and a brilliant light
Your glory bursts and the heavens shine
Saints and angels stand in awe
Captured by the beauty of it all
So I fall to my knees
But I can’t bow low enough
I can’t bow low enough
At the vision of You, my God
I can’t hold it all inside
I’m reaching for the One
Who brought me out of death and into life
Now I can’t lift my hands high enough
Lift my hands high enough
When I’m reaching for You, my God
Singer/Songwriter: Phil Wickham
* ~ ♥ ~ ✞ ~ ♥ ~ *
I heard this beautiful song—a psalm, really—for the very first time yesterday. I had the joy of attending the 2014 Recital of The King’s Dancers. And “Cielo” was the musical script for one of the ballet numbers. I can truly say that my heart was overwhelmed by this song!
This beautiful, captivating song is written to paint the picture of being in God’s Throne Room. Phil Wickham shares his heart about this song in the very beginning of this video clip. Here is what he said: “The song is kind of a story about a man, kind of waking up…his first kind of entrance to the heaven and seeing God and being overwhelmed, in the light, in the love, in the mystery and beauty of the whole place, so I wrote the verses as a story and the chorus is kind of a sing-a-long response.”
And each verse DOES depict such a vivid mind-picture, don’t you think? “Thunder rolling, brilliant glory bursting, walking through bright white gates, breathing God’s grace, hearing joyous melodies rising about…” But what caught me and drew me in was the idea of it not being possible to sing loud enough…or bow low enough…or lift my hands high enough in worshipful response to the absolute Presence of my God!
It reminded me of this passage in the very beginning of the Book of Revelations:
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me.
And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands;
and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man,
clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.
His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow;
and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace,
and His voice was like the sound of many waters.
In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword;
and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.
When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.
And He placed His right hand on me, saying,
“Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One;
and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore….Revelations 1:12-18
The apostle John was given incredible and amazing and awesome and hard-to-fathom revelations. He was shown the most magnificent and truly breathtaking things in the Kingdom of Heaven. Perhaps, do you think that, had he known this song, he might have been singing, “I can’t bow low enough, I can’t bow low enough at the vision of You, my God!”
Listening to this song, I desire to be real before my God recognizing my desperate need for Him. I would love to plead with you, friends, to take your music-listening device and go in your ‘closet.’ Play it as loud as you are comfortable with…and worship Your God! I pray that you won’t be able to sing loud enough or bow low enough or lift your hands high enough! But DO sing and bow and lift your hands because God is as close as your breath…and He SO desires to receive your worship and praise!