Behind the Song: Known (Forever Enthroned)
By Zach Busick, Director of Corporate Worship
In 2023, I was reading a lot about the doctrine of revelation. Not the book of Revelation, but the theological category that focuses on questions like:
“By what means can God be known?”
“What role do faith, reason, scripture, and creation play in making God known?”
and “Can the Infinite, the Divine, the Transcendent (a.k.a. God) even be known at all by finite, crude, and limited creatures like us?”
One of the basic claims of Christianity, of course, is that God can be known, and indeed, has made Himself known. Christians haven’t yet come to a unanimous agreement about how the details of this claim shake out. For example, many Christians believe that God can be known, at least partially, through creation: we can learn about Him by observing the cosmos, because in creating it, He revealed Himself. Others profoundly disagree, like Karl Barth, the Swiss theologian who wrote an essay on the subject that he subtly titled Nein! For Barth, God could only be known by God’s direct revelation–by God’s own Word–and not at all through creation.
But there is one thing we do all agree on—in fact, it’s the very thing that makes us Christians. Christianity universally teaches that God most fully and truly revealed Himself in the man Jesus Christ. And a second universal belief necessarily follows: that God has specially revealed Himself in the written words of the Apostles (a.k.a the New Testament), for they were appointed by Him to preach His gospel, and in the written words of the Prophets (a.k.a. the Old Testament), for Jesus claimed that everything they preached was about Him.
To put it more succinctly:
How can an infinite Creator be known by finite creatures? Through his Incarnate Word, who is fully God and fully human, and through his written word, which has fully Divine and fully human authorship.
All of this—this theology of revelation—was swirling around in my head as I began to write “Known”.
The chorus was inspired by the epic picture that Psalm 9 and Psalm 107 paint of God enthroned above the world, judging it righteously and compassionately.
Forever enthroned!
With justice & mercy You make Yourself known
Forever enthroned!
The hope of the lowly is with You alone
Through confusion and strife, with faltering eyes
Behold the Creator on high!
Forever enthroned! You alone!
Even though the world sometimes seems full of injustice and cruelty, even though it can look like the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting crueler and the world is going to hell in a handbasket, Psalm 9 tells us that God is watching it all and judging it righteously. “The wicked will return to Sheol,” “the needy will not always be forgotten,” and “the hope of the oppressed will not perish forever.” (Ps. 9:17-18). Verse 16 tells us that “The LORD has made himself known” by bringing these things about.
A few of the ways that the Lord makes himself known, according to Psalm 9, are by tangling up the wicked in their own foolish traps and by answering the cries of the oppressed, poor, and overburdened. And it’s not just Psalm 9! This comes back over and over again throughout the book of Psalms, as well as in the poetry of prophets like Isaiah, who were filled with holy outrage at the social injustices Israel was committing in disobedience to God. In fact, the foundational story for all of the Hebrew Prophets, the Exodus, is about an oppressed people who God sets free, and a wicked, oppressive ruler who brings himself to ruin through his enmity with God.
A pattern emerges throughout the Old Testament: wherever we see the wicked punished and the righteous rewarded, God is making himself known; wherever we see injustice instead, it is the result of humans turning away from God, disobeying Him, and becoming blind to His perfect will.
We may not be able to understand, in this life, why God allows injustice. Our own suffering or the suffering in the world at large can make it feel difficult or even impossible to see God at work (hence the confusion and strife, the faltering eyes), but when we look at what God has done—Who He has revealed Himself to be—we can place our hope in his justice and mercy.
Once I had a chorus in place, I knew I wanted the verses to tell the story of God making himself known throughout Scripture. Verses 1 and 2 are about the most revelatory event in the Hebrew Bible, the Exodus:
The LORD has done great things, has done great things.
The LORD has entered into time from eternity.
He made Himself known
When He set the captives free:
Our God the Just, our God the Good King!The LORD has done great things, has done great things.
The LORD confronted Pharaoh in his tyranny.
He made Himself known
When He answered the cry of the weak:
Our God the Just, our God the Good King!
In the Exodus event, God made himself known as the One Who Delivers, the One Who Sets Free, the One Who Opposes Pharaoh (along with the tyranny that Pharaoh symbolizes). Shortly after the Exodus event, through the Prophet Moses, God tells the Israelites his proper name, “YHWH”, and tells them about some essential aspects of His character:
“YHWH, YHWH, a compassionate God and gracious, slow to anger and abundant of loyal love and faithfulness. “ (Ex. 34:6, translated by Tim Mackie)
Exodus 34:6 is a Bible verse that is quoted by the rest of the Bible more than any other verse. From Exodus onward, it is either alluded to or directly quoted dozens of times. Do a quick skim through the Psalms and you’ll see those phrases popping up over and over again: Compassionate (or, “Merciful”), Gracious, Slow to Anger, and Overflowing with Loyal Love (or, “Steadfast Love,” or, “Lovingkindness”) and Faithfulness. It is the definitive statement of Who God is, and within the story of scripture, it is specifically linked to the Exodus event.
These first two verses retell the Exodus story in miniature, as the Psalmists are fond of doing (specifically in Ps. 78, 105, 106, 114, 135, and 136), to remind us of what that story reveals about God.
In the 3rd verse, we turn our eyes to Christ, specifically his Incarnation and Crucifixion:
The LORD has done great things, has done great things.
He humbly took on flesh, was clothed in humanity.
He made Himself known
From His throne, a bloody tree:
Our God the Just, our God the Good King!
And in the 4th, we focus on that central event to all of human history, the Resurrection:
The LORD has done great things, has done great things.
The LORD has plundered death and stolen it’s dreadful sting.
He made Himself known
When he rose from the dead, so we sing:
Our God the Just, our God the Good King!
Theologians often link the “Exodus event” with what they call the “Christ event” and highlight the revelatory power of each. In the Exodus, God revealed Himself as Compassionate, Gracious, Slow to Anger, Loving, and Faithful. He rescued the Israelites from the tyranny of Pharaoh to prove it. In Christ, God revealed these aspects of His character even more fully and deeply because in Christ, He has rescued weak, oppressed humanity from the tyranny of sin and death.
As we sing the song in corporate worship, we retell the story of God making himself known. With each verse the chorus is given new color and light as the song builds toward the Resurrection. Christ, who died and rose from the dead, is the fullest revelation of the God who makes Himself known, the Image of the Invisible God, the Word in Flesh; my hope is that whenever the Church sings this song in worship, our eyes (faltering as they are) come into focus and catch a glimpse of that truth.
P.S. This song sparked a journey of liturgical songwriting that started with me writing songs on my own, and has grown to include other musicians and songwriters at City Life. Lord willing, this journey will culminate with an album (to be released in the Fall of 2026) called Theophany.
“Theophany” means “An Appearance of God,” and the whole album will be centered around the same subject as this song: the doctrine of revelation. Each song wrestles with the Christian belief that God has made, is making, and will make Himself known. Each approaches this glorious truth from a different perspective.
Keep an eye out for the next single, True and Steadfast Friend, coming soon!
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