Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

Psalm 139

Sunday morning Rebekah and I worshiped with our church family at Hudson Memorial. We enjoyed all aspects of the service, but it was the choir’s anthem that really touched my spirit. 

The piece, a paraphrase of Psalm 139, was composed by contemporary choral director Allen Pote and I recognized it immediately. Pote was a favorite of our choir when we served at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Pensacola. So, after worship, I shared the following story with our organist, Al Hyde, who played piano on the recording below.

It was sometime in the late 80’s, and several members of our church choir were attending a choral workshop at the big downtown Baptist church along with directors and singers from 15 or 20 local congregations. 

Pote, a nationwide celebrity, had been flown in to teach a masterclass. At the end of the day our choir director – Don – asked if he would like to accompany him to church the next day for worship; Pote said he would love to.

“We’re singing one of your compositions,” Don added. “Would you like to conduct?”

Pote said he would be honored.

Well, word got out in the few hours before church and instead of the usual 30, close to 60 choir members managed to rearrange their schedules (golf outings and whatnot) and were at Trinity Presbyterian in force for worship the next day!

Then, when it was time for the choir to sing, they responded to Allen Pote’s baton in a way I had never before witnessed and it reminded me what a profound spiritual gift leadership can be. The church, full as always with so many beautiful faith-filled families, was overwhelmed with a sense of the presence of God. The choir gave their all, praise flooded through the sanctuary, and when it was over the entire space was filled with a pregnant silence that could easily have burst into loud applause but instead segued into prayer.

I have been particularly conscious recently of my tendency to “just be there” in worship, to simply enjoy the morning rather than opening my heart on a deeper level.

So, thank you to our choir for your leadership in worship, thank you to Allen Pote for the music, thank you to the psalmist for writing such words, and thank you to Trinity Presbyterian Church for the memory that helped stir the embers in the ashes.

But most of all – or course – thank you to God for being patient, and present, and continually invested in who I am and who I am becoming as a spiritual being.

As the writer of Psalm 139 puts it so beautifully, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful…”

Have an amazing week, friends, the possibilities are endless – DEREK