In 2017, the Australian Christian music ministry Hillsong United released a worship song titled So Will I (100 Billion X). The lyrics and music were written by Joel Houston Benjamin Hastings, and Michael Fatkin (CCLI: 7084123).
I’ve been studying the song as we prepare to use it in a worship service. I want to thank the three writers and composers for this piece. It is not a typical modern worship song for several reasons. For one thing, the song has many complex lyrics, making it more of a performance song than a participation song, and that is fine.
Another reason I find the song to be inspiring is its poetry. Hillsong United takes criticism from some conservative quarters of Christianity for creating worship songs that are poetic, not explicitly referencing traditional Christian words. This is not always the case for Hillsong United, but songs like Touch The Sky (written by Dylan Thomas, Joel Houston, and Michael Chislett) never include the words “God,” “Jesus,” “Lord,” or any terminology or insider Christian language. Some find this threatening.
I think this fear and criticism come from a misunderstanding of the crucial value of the art of poetry in human expression. Poetic words are powerful because they avoid directness and speak tangentially to a topic, inspiring a re-examination of meaning. Criticism of poetic Christian worship lyrics is ironic, because the biblical collection of ancient Jewish lyrics (the Psalms) is filled with poetry.
I have often distinguished two very general categories of Christian worship songs – those that are poetic and those that are based on “doctrine set to music.” Traditional and modern hymns are in the latter category, and they serve important purposes, as do all statements of doctrine in worship.
But.
Christian worship expression need not be limited to “doctrine set to music,” just as it need not be limited to the dimension of sound. The other dimensions of human sensory experience amplify our ability to express ourselves and be changed through worship, just as poetry leads where explicit doctrinal statements cannot.
I love that.
As a scientist, I want to celebrate briefly some of the poetry in So Will I (100 Billion X). I add [my notes of commentary] among the lyrics reproduced below. The most obvious “hook” in these lyrics is “hundred billion” so I have highlighted it in the lyrics and will note below why this number carries special significance to me. I don’t know if the lyricists chose this number for any of these reasons, or if it just sounded like a big number. It doesn’t matter.
That’s the beauty of poetry.
God of creation
There at the start
Before the beginning of time
With no point of reference
You spoke to the dark
And fleshed out the wonder of light
[The preceding stanza is such a beautiful and poetic way to restate the biblical creation narrative, summarized biblically in the sentence translated “Let there be light.”]
And as you speak
A hundred billion galaxies are born
[Some scientific commentary about “a hundred billion.” In a VERY general estimate (probably within a factor of ten), the universe has 100 billion (100,000,000,000) galaxies, and each galaxy has more than 100 billion (100,000,000,000) stars. In case you are counting, that means the number of stars in the universe is more than ten sextillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) stars. The echoes of 100 billion are beautiful…but also relevant. I will note, as did cosmologists Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson, that incomprehensibly big numbers are not limited to the “big” of this universe, but also to the “small.” For example, there are ten times more molecules in an object the size of the human eye than there are stars in the universe.]
In the vapor of your breath the planets form
If the stars were made to worship so will I
I can see your heart in everything you’ve made
Every burning star
A signal fire of grace
If creation sings your praises so will I
God of your promise
You don’t speak in vain
No syllable empty or void
For once you have spoken
All nature and science
Follow the sound of your voice
And as you speak
A hundred billion creatures catch your breath
Evolving in pursuit of what you said
[I love that in their poetry, the lyricists chose not to shy away from the word “evolving” as a present participle. This acknowledges the evidence that God is creating through evolution. They celebrate this in the poetry. Beautiful. There need not be anything threatening here. Just truth expressed well in poetry.]
If it all reveals your nature so will I
I can see your heart in everything you say
Every painted sky
A canvas of your grace
If creation still obeys you so will I
If the stars were made to worship so will I
If the mountains bow in reverence so will I
If the oceans roar your greatness so will I
For if everything exists to lift you high so will I
If the wind goes where you send it so will I
If the rocks cry out in silence so will I
If the sum of all our praises still falls shy
Then we’ll sing again a hundred billion times
[I find the preceding bridge stanza to be especially beautiful]
God of salvation
You chased down my heart
Through all of my failure and pride
On a hill you created
The light of the world
Abandoned in darkness to die
And as you speak
A hundred billion failures disappear
[This is the most poignant and remarkable lyric in the song. Some might find it controversial. In round numbers the total number of humans that have ever lived on this planet so far is a bit more than 100 billion. Christ’s death on the cross paid for all of them (“a hundred billion failures disappear”) and paid for every human who will yet live, for that matter. Christ’s death didn’t pay only for those who will accept him in this life…it paid for every human who will ever live. This echoes my aspiration that God’s grace will prove irresistible beyond the fullness of time so that one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.]
Where you lost your life so I could find it here
If you left the grave behind you so will I
[This was the climactic “so will I” of the song]
I can see your heart in everything you’ve done
Every part designed in a work of art called love
If you gladly chose surrender so will I
[a remarkable lyric]
I can see your heart
Eight billion different ways
[The lyricists get our attention by shifting one time from 100 billion to 8 billion. There are between 7 and 8 billion humans alive on this planet now.]
Every precious one
A child you died to save
If you gave your life to love them so will I
Like you would again a hundred billion times
[This lyric reminds me that the redemptive payment afforded by Christ’s death and resurrection echoes from the beginning to the end, sufficient to rescue every human soul that will ever exist.]
But what measure could amount to your desire
You’re the one who never leaves the one behind
So this is my shout-out to Houston, Hastings, and Fatkin for penning So Will I (100 Billion X) in 2017. The scope of the song is audacious, approaching the unimaginable power and love of God through poetry, while embodying the recognition that this God is personal and lets each individual life become a “so will I” in the ultimate epic love story.
8.2.20
