My love for sacred Christian music cannot be understated. I grew up on this stuff, particularly music by this particular gentleman, Ron Hamilton (a.k.a. "Patch the Pirate"). I was raised singing this sort of thing in church and in school for fine arts competition and it forever shaped my vocal style and preferred type of music to perform for church.
This particular song first crossed my path when I was in college at Pensacola Christian College. At the time, I was a member of our collegian male ensemble. Much of what we did was acapella (the good kind, not the obnoxious crap that Pitch Perfect lampoons) though I seem to recall we may have had a pianist that would help us learn the parts and give us a starting key. This was going on two decades ago so my memory is a little fuzzy on some of the details. In any case, this was one of the few songs I remember performing alongside "John the Revelator". I quickly fell in love with the song and even bought the sheet music for the choral arrangement. I believe I only ever performed it once at my old church but the arrangement was done for congregational singing instead of the orchestrated and arranged version here. It was a simple verse/chorus/verse/chorus arrangement with no frills. Where's the fun in that? Still, it was the only arrangement available to me at the time and so the pianist played and I sang. This was also at a time when .mp3 downloads of accompaniment tracks was less prevalent and ordering CDs was much more expensive, although orchestration CD's still aren't cheap.
The message of the song is simple enough. As Christians, we are to submit to the authority of God. However, this isn't to be done out of mere obligation. As Ron sings, part of this is out of duty and a recognition of who God is as the sovereign over all creation. However, there is also a desire to submit out of thankfulness for the grace He has shown and continues to show believers. We are to obey our Lord not because we have to, but because we want to. In fact, this is to be the heart attitude of all believers. For example:
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. (Ephesians 5:1-2 NASB2020)
We imitate and emulate the life of Christ because of His sacrifice for us. Yes, it is required that we be holy as God is holy (Leviticus 11:44-45, 20:26; 1 Peter 1:16, etc.) but we do so because we model the life of our Lord who modeled how to live in submission to the father for us (Hebrews 12:1-3). Ultimately, all men will ultimately bow the knee (Isaiah 45:23, Romans 14:11, Philippians 2:10), whether or not they do so out of love or fear is another matter altogether.
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