Day 14

Welcome Back!

I am currently on the adventure of trying to listen to only Christian music for 30 days. So far it has been an overwhelming success, but I am excited to see where God is going to take me over the next 16 days. If you are wondering why I am doing this, or what I am expecting to get out of this, then I suggest that you go and read my first blog. And if you want to know if there has been any growth or changes in my life since this challenge started, then I suggest that you go and read any other blog. Now, let’s get into today’s blog.

Boy oh boy do I have a treat for you today! Today I am going to talk about a song from one of the most unique artists in the business, and the man with by far the best beard in all of music! Mr. David Crowder, or Crowder as he is now known. Crowder has been around in the Christian Music industry for probably close to 20 years now, and he has been putting out hits after hits. And it needs to be made known that none of those songs were hits because of anything he or his band did on their own. They have been blessed to have had God’s hand over them in their song writing process, as well as in their music making process. But nonetheless, God has certainly used Crowder and his band in many ways to further his kingdom! One of the coolest things about Crowder, and his band, is that they do not have a specific style. They can do it all. They have had poppy songs that are super up-temp and happy that were amazing, and they have had down right gospel hymn type songs that I am surprised that I haven’t started hearing in my church yet. But of all their styles, my favorite might be their latest style, which they classify as “Porch Listening” music. This “Porch” music is a little bit heavier, and more grassroots sounding. Their songs feature a lot of pianos, mixed with bass, and even some banjo and harmonica’s thrown in for good measure. There really isn’t any way to describe it better than it is a mix of hip-hop, country, and gospel music, and it is amazing. I implore you to go and give Crowder’s last three albums a listen to. There really is nothing out there that sounds quite like David Crowder, and his last couple albums.

Now, let’s get into the song that I am so pumped up about sharing today! The name of the song is “Crushing Snakes” and it is off of Crowder’s latest album “I know a Ghost”. The song starts off with an eerie piano chord playing, which really sets the mood for the entire song. The chord continues to play, as the notes seem to be on a loop. After about 10 seconds, Crowder comes in with a very subdued voice to sing the first verse of the song. The lyrics go like this: “We’re not afraid, Terrors of night, arrows that fly by day, ten thousand may fall, but we, we will remain.” I pause at this point because it is at this point that the first bass kick and drumbeat come in, and you really feel it. Also, I absolutely love the way Crowder plays with the last syllable in the words “afraid” and “day”. This is going to be one of the most defining features of the song. In terms of the lyrics themselves, Crowder is painting a picture of war, and not giving up or being afraid, which totally matches the music to this song perfectly.

The next verse continues with: “We’re not afraid, a promise of God, can never be torn away. Walking on hands of angels, crushing snakes, safe under the shadow of his wings, our fortress and our strength.” It is this verse that I love the most in this entire song! The imagery that Crowder is pulling from is directly from the Bible, in the form of God’s response to Adam and Eve after he banishes them from the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3:15, God is talking directly to the serpent and says “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers, he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” If you are unaware as to why God is saying this to the serpent, then I implore you to go read the beginning of Genesis, which is the first book in the Bible. Anyways, it was at this point that man and serpents first developed their natural disdain for each other, but there is so much more here to unpack than just a dislike for snakes. In that story, the serpent is actually the physical incarnation for Satan, and when go was talking to the snake, he was actually talking about Satan. That is why Satan is almost always associated with snakes in modern day culture. So when Crowder said “Walking on hands of angles, crushing snakes” what he was saying is that because we know who wins this fight, and that God is with us, we can live our lives boldly enough to crush the head of the snakes in our lives (Satan himself). Now I don’t think Crowder is telling you to go find a literal snake to go crush, but more so the figurative one in your life. That is what I love so much about this song. Crowder does a wonderful job of marrying the musical tone and lyrical writing of the song to paint this picture of a war cry for a people who already know the outcome of the fight!

One of the other most interesting aspects of this song is that the main chorus is not actually the highlight of the song. When I first heard this song, it was not the main chorus that was stuck in my head. It was the way that Crowder plays with the syllables of different words. In fact, I had a tough time even figuring out what is the main chorus of the song! But after further review, I think that I have found it, and it starts when the music actually starts to die down after that last verse. When the lyrics come back in, the only music you hear is that single solidary piano playing again, and Crowder is singing, “We’re taking back our freedom, Our battle has been won, We have been liberated, Back from the dead, we’ve come!” The first time it plays this, the music is soft, but as he progresses through those words, the beat starts to pick up, until you get to the end of the lyrics and you can feel the bass drop about to come… and boy does it come!! If you can, listen to this song as loud as you can the first time you hear it, because Crowder now sings those same words again, but this time the music comes back in as loud as can be, and you can almost feel the adrenaline pumping through your vains, knowing that this is no longer your battle cry, this is your VICTORY SONG!! I am getting all jacked up just writing about this, so that should show you how triumphant this is! After you recover from the main chorus, the song takes you back into the same type of verse as you heard before. But this time, there is not hiding or waiting, we are in full on attack mode! We are heading out to crush the snakes of everything that the Devil has put in our ways. And that is how I hope you feel when you hear this song. I hope this song inspires you to go fight the fight, and trust that the battle has already been won! We do not have to worry about anything else, because we know that the battle has already been won!

So I want to challenge you to go live your life with the boldness you would have after knowing that the battle is already won! Go crush the snakes around you, knowing that you are walking on the hands of angles. Everywhere you go, and everything you do, God has you protected! Thank you for reading, and I hope that you get something out of this song in the same way that I did! May God bless you in your day!