Lift You High is a worship song birthed from within the worship team at Clayton Church in late 2016. Note that ongoing availability of song material provided below cannot be guaranteed since it remains property of Clayton Church and is made available here for use and benefit of the church in an unofficial capacity.

Background

The song originated from an experience during a Sunday morning service during worship where one of the worship team members started to feel God’s presence and imagine that heaven felt like that. As it continued throughout the day he started writing about how beautiful and wonderful God’s presence is. It all seemed to flow very naturally, and thus the melody and lyrics for Lift You High formed the core of the composition.

At the November worship team night, the next stage of song writing/development took place in the collaborative environment, where our resident keyboardist and one of the guitarists helped to add their colour and alterations to the song. With our worship director/drummer’s musicianship contributed to the mix, the song was completed and a rough recording was made in late November:

With an initial focus for sharing the song amongst the worship team for the purposes of familiarisation and enable all of us to learn the song, additional resources were quickly made available:

1. MP3 track recording (played in the key of A)
2. Chord Chart

Lyrics

Verse 1
This atmosphere is different
It feels so very different
It must be You Lord It must be You Lord

Your glory fills the heavens
Your glory fills the earth
How wonderful you are
How wonderful you are

Pre-Chorus
Oh I… see… beauty in Your presence
Oh I… see… wondrous things in You

Chorus
We’re here to lift You high
Here to lift you high
Join with all the angels
Sing to Jesus Christ

Verse 2
Times and seasons changing
These times and seasons changing
Into something new
Into something new

His children are arising
His children are arising
Can you hear the sound?
Can you hear the sound?

 

Bridge
You are our victory
Our freedom now
Is found in Jesus Christ
And if our God is for us
Who can be against us

Lyric Analysis

Knowing the song background helps to provide fullness to the appreciation of the lyrics being sung. The first verse reflects on the atmosphere of God’s presence; His holiness brings about a difference and more importantly our awareness and ability to perceive the difference His presence brings is part of the atmosphere of worship. At the start of the song, the theme here is that as we put aside the daily grind of life and focus on God, there is an initial difference that we can attune ourselves to. The interesting thing is that not everyone will be able to sense the difference, but it is a goal in the initial stages of communing with God – to sense that we are unworthy and different to His perfection.

In the second half of the verse, we move further into God’s presence, where His glory fills the heavens and earth. These sentiments echo Psalm 19 and Isaiah 6:3:

And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

As we focus on the glory of God filling heaven and earth, how natural is it to react and declare how wonderful He is? How wonderful you are indeed!

As the song transitions from verse to chorus, the pre-chorus appropriate builds musically and flows out from the outpouring of love and wonder that God’s presence induces. We can see the beauty of God’s presence, in being near to us. Our eyes are unveiled so we can see just how wondrous things are in Him. All things become clearer in the sight of God and when we use Him as our filter to life. The natural order and perfection of God helps to bring structure and focus for our direction, future, past and present.

The song peaks with the chorus declaring that, we, as believers united as one body to lift God’s name on high. We are here to lift You high above the heavens and earth. You, oh God, are the name above all names, the sovereign Lord of all. In lifting God high and placing Him upon the throne of our life, we submit in worship to the King of Kings. The act of declaring the chorus “here to lift you high” humbles us and ensures our pride is swallowed and we are made worthy before Him.

The second part of the chorus is just as key though. We do not worship our Lord in isolation as a people here on earth. We actually join as one with the angels in singing to Jesus the Christ, Messiah and Son of God. We are all here to lift high the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If t here is any one verse from the bible that epitomises the song title and chorus refrain it would be Psalm 145:1. Multiple versions help to convey the essence of meaning, with The Message using “high”:

• I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. (King James)
• I lift you high in praise, my God, O my King! and I’ll bless your name into eternity. (The Message)
• I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. (New Living Translation)

The second and final verse reflects on the changing times and seasons. The repeated lyric which is the intentional style of the song adds emphasis to the words – God transforms and changes us into something new, moulding us and shaping us to become more like Him. This journey is a common path shared by all of us believers, particularly when we are alive in the Word and sensitive to the Holy Spirit working in our lives. Just as the point of baptism marks our public declaration, it is really the start of something new; we become a new creation, reborn into the family of God.

To be called a child of God is part of our faith and relationship with our heavenly Father. We are made worthy in His eyes because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross paying for all of our sins. As we arise out of the baptismal waters, we indeed are a new creation, washed clean symbolically of our sins by the blood of Jesus. When we all sing with one voice, in praise and worship of our God, along with the angels, to declare Him lifted high, we become a sweet sound in the ear of God – can you hear this sound?

The bridge of Lift You High is another peak for the song where the lyrics are proclaimed emphatically. Jesus is our victory and our freedom given He finished it on the cross. Our very freedom from death with life is found only in Him who taught us that He is the way, truth and life. Only one road leads to heaven and it is narrow, and requires us to submit to His Lordship. The bridge ends with a reminder of Romans 8:31:

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Song Arrangement & Music Composition

The arrangement for Lift You High is as follows:

1. Verse 1
2. Pre-Chorus
3. Chorus
4. Verse 2
5. Pre-Chorus
6. Chorus (x2)
7. Instrumental
8. Bridge (x2)
9. Chorus (vocals only, repeated with full band)

The song starts softly, and builds through the pre-chorus. The first peak at the first chorus is declarative and loud, thus enabling a solid and emphatic flow directly into the second verse with a short bar. The pattern of building the song at the pre-chorus kicks in such that the second chorus forms the main peak of the song overall. Repeating the chorus twice in this segment flows into an instrumental time with the opportunity for free worship. After the instrumental, the bridge forms a final peak for the song, where we remind ourselves of God’s victory – if our God is for us, who can stand against us. Only God can and has prevailed.

Lift You High was first performed and introduced to the Clayton Church congregation as part of the worship bracket of the 10am morning service held on Sunday 20 November 2016, with a repeat performances the following two Sundays (27 November and 4 December) which has helped to teach the new song to the church. With Christmas carols dominating the remainder of 2016, our second service for 2017 (Sunday 8 January) saw the reintroduction of the song, which helps to explain why the song has invaded my subconscious thought.

It remains to be seen if Lift You High forms part of any future Worship Night and/or worship production/recording, so for now, the resources above are an unofficial way to help share the latest output from the Clayton Church Worship team, for the benefit of the church family, life groups who would like to use the song for life-group worship sessions.