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Several years ago, Dave Johnson and I were both serving as Youth Pastors together at a church in Virginia. One day he came into my office with his guitar and The Book of Common Prayer and said he had this really cool thing going on with The Third Song of Isaiah as found in the Daily Morning Prayer: Rite Two. I listened while he played it for me, and I could see he was indeed onto something. We spent the next three hours paraphrasing the words into a song and bringing the melody from a verse structure into the chorus. We liked it, and so did the young people we played it for. In fact, their parents liked it, too.
These words, first delivered almost 3,000 years ago, are still awaiting their fulfillment at the end of the age even though they were also certainly pointing to the birth of Christ in some respects. I believe we have been seeing some of the signs of its fulfillment in different movements around the world in our day.
This arrangement of the song is quite different from the original in two respects. First, what used to be a third verse just like the first and second was changed into a bridge. It took some re-writing one late night at home and not only makes a dramatic change to the music, but it really exalts the Lamb seated on the throne above everything else in a powerful way. The basic rhythm and sound of the music is very different now, too. Mannie and I were having a lot of trouble finding the right way to record this song. We tried it straight on rock ala Moody Blues like the original, we tried it Celtic, but we just couldn’t get happy. Finally, in the eleventh hour, Mannie started noodling with the delay and the rest just fell all over it in no time.
Arise, shine, for your light has come,
And the glory of the Lord God has dawned upon you.
For behold, over all the land
Dark and deepest gloom is a shroud upon the peoples.
But over you the Lord will rise,
And His glory will be made manifest among you, among you.
Nations will stream to your light,
And kings to your dawning bright.
Your gates will be open, by day or by night, they won't close.
Arise, shine!
You will be called the dwelling place,
And the City of the Most Holy One, Jehovah.
Salvation will replace your walls,
And your city gates will resound with praise forever.
Violence and the careless waste
Of the human race will all be erased. Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
The moon will not shine in any night,
And the stars will fade to black, out of sight.
And the sun will bow before the radiant glory of the Lamb
When the kingdom of this world
Has become the Kingdom of our God!
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