The Ballad of the Cross

http://songsofpraise.org/song.php?songid=34

By the prophets, God foretold
Of the sending of His Son
Who would give His life to set the captive free.
Stepping down from His throne
And the glory He had known
Jesus came to give His life for you and me.

Though He knew well the cost
He was prepared to suffer loss
and give Himself as ransom for us all.
Into our hopeless world He came
Endured the suffering and the shame
Every moment staying faithful to the call.

Yet the One who spoke of love
Was rejected and despised
He knew all too well the sinful heart of men.
Those with eyes refused to see
Those with ears refused to hear
As they sought a way to bring Him to an end.

By a friend He was betrayed
By soldiers, led away
Yet for this very hour He had come.
They did not take - He freely gave
For those He came to save
The road to the cross He walked alone.

He could have called a million angels to His side
Or stepped down from the cross and walked away.
Yet His love held Him there
Through the pain and despair
To free us from the debt we could not pay.

In His suffering and pain
Took the guilt and the shame
As He hung between the heavens and the ground.
Every nail, every thorn
Every stare, every scorn
Pierced the One who so freely laid it down.

With His face to the sky
"It is finished!" was His cry
The words that broke the gates of hell.
When His final words were said
Breathed His last, bowed His head
Darkness o'er the land so quickly fell.

Yet death and darkness could not stand against His power
He rose, victorious o'er the grave.
In His light we now may live
By the grace He came to give
All who call upon His name are surely saved!
All who call upon His name are surely saved!

Copyright © 1997 Elton Smith and Larry Holder

Here is Elton's introductory paragraph: "This is turning out to be one of the most popular songs on this site. I wrote the music and told Larry the theme I had in mind. He pounded out the words in one day (maybe he was inspired also). It's kind of long, but I wouldn't remove a single word. - Elton, December 6, 1997".

Yes, it was definitely a moment of inspiration. Taking a great upbeat melody of Elton's, along with his idea for the theme, the words just starting coming along. Generally, we write a lot of songs with 2, maybe 3 verses plus a chorus; this one was quite a bit longer, and thus we dubbed it a "ballad" :-) I wanted to write it as an overview of Jesus from the prophecy of His coming thru His glorious ressurection.

It has turned out to be one of our most used songs, the top one being "All Of My Heart" (which I will blog about soon as well). The Ballad of the Cross is probably most used as an Easter special, since its primary focus is the cross and the ressurection.

Sometimes word combinations just work out well... for example:

Every nail, every thorn
Every stare, every scorn
Pierced the One who so freely laid it down...

The first line deals with the physical pain (nails in His hands and feet, thorns on his head). The second line deals with emotional pain (the stares and scorning coming from the crowd). The rhyming of thorn and scorn ties the two thoughts together lyrically.

Then there is the first bridge:

He could have called a million angels to His side
Or stepped down from the cross and walked away.
Yet His love held Him there,
Through the pain and despair
To free us from the debt we could not pay.

There is no way to fully fathom the depths of the love of God in what He did for us on the cross, but that is my meager attempt to vocalize it.

May our Lord's peace be with you.

Introductions

Greetings, and welcome to my new blog. I've been writing Christian songs since 1972, and have been sharing them online since 1995. My website, http://www.larryholdermusic.org/, was established in 2001. There, you will find nearly a hundred songs that I have written or co-written. The list continues to grow, as I continue to write and collaborate via the Internet. My most prolific collaboration has been with Elton Smith of http://songsofpraise.org, which began with my adding lyrics to a few of his melodies he had posted as MIDI files. I have also had the blessing of writing with Steve Israel, Rick Founds, Dave Laborde, and several others -- the complete list can be seen at http://www.larryholdermusic.org/songwriters.html. I thought it would be good to talk about some of the songs, particularly the lyrics, and how they came about.