Exodus stories ...
Up From Here
Full
of humour, but not silly. Sober, but with an underlying laughter which boils over quite often, Up From
Here gathers together many of the Bible's exodus themes and marches tunefully through them. A joy for
both children and adults.
Song samples are in mp3 format. Please note that audio files are large and may require a few moments to download, particularly if you are using a dial-up Internet account.
To purchase this album, visit our online store.
lyrics
Take and Eat
© Jamie Soles June, 2002
God of life, for our life
Planted a tree in Eden
Tree of Life, we delight
For our hunger given
Take and
eat, satisfy
Here the Lord will meet us
Taste and see, glorify
Good of God to feed us
God of grace
shows His face
God and man in union
Made like Him, made for Him
Born to have communion
Take and eat,
satisfy
Here the Lord will meet us
Taste and see, glorify
Good of God to feed us
Take and eat, satisfy
Lest this bond you sever
Do believe, don’t deny
Eat and live forever
Into the World
© Jamie Soles October 2002
Tend this garden of Mine
Make it shine
Make it grow
I have a greater design
Here in My mind
I will show
you
Look at how the rivers flow
Down into the world below
Take this garden of Mine
All that you find
Take
it into the world
Ride this river you found
Follow it down
Flag unfurled
There find gold in the ground
Beauty
abounds In My world
You are called to beautify My world,
My name to glorify
Take this bounty you see
City to be
Make it a praise to Me
Lady, Don't Listen
© Jamie Soles July 13, 1996
Lady don't listen
Don't lend him your mind
His greatest delight
Is in robbing you blind
And Man don't be
foolish
Do you think you should
Determine yourself
What is evil and good
But serpent, he's subtle
"Has
God really said?"
Has worked its design
Now Adam is dead
East Wind
© Jamie Soles Jan 27, 2003
Out of the garden and into the land
As it was planned, but not like we hoped for
Driven in anger and forever
banned
Time to obey, but how can we stand
Oh, out where the east wind blows
Here where the thistle bush grows
Here what could happen, who knows
Oh, here we’ll return to the ground
Gravity pulling us down
No tree
of life to be found, oh, oh, oh
Out of the garden but still in the land
God has a plan, we have been covered
Nothing to do but to take it in hand
Time to obey, help me to stand
Oh, out where the east wind blows
Here where the thistle bush grows
Here what could happen, who knows
Oh, here we’ll return to the ground
Gravity pulling us down
No tree of life to be found, oh, oh, oh
Up From Here
© Jamie Soles Jan 6, 2003
Joseph, for eighty years you’ve led the nation
A blessing to the congregation
A man of God who saved
our lives
Joseph, here are the children of your children
What God has promised has been given
And you have
seen it with your eyes
And now you’re saying…
I’m about to die
But God will visit
you
And bring you up out of this land
To the land that He has promised
The promise to our fathers will draw
near
I’m about to go
The way of all the earth
But you have got to know
That He will come for you
And
when you finally go
Carry my bones up from here
Joseph, so many things that you have shown us
A faith that
holds on to the promise
When no deliverance is near
Joseph, to whom the Lord has shown His favor
You
sure remind us of our Savior
Could that be why He brought you here
And now you’re saying…
I'm about to die....
Follow the Line
© Jamie Soles Apr 14, 2003
Follow the line, the line of promise
Through whom our God gave the Savior
Through every age, there on the
page
We can remember their names
Adam and Seth, Enosh and Kenan
Mahalalel, Jared and Enoch
Then comes
Methuselah, Lamech and Noah
Antediluvians, all.
Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah and Eber
Peleg and Reu and
Serug
Nahor’s
descendants were Terah and Abram
Abram the father of the faithful
Follow the line… follow the line…
Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob and Judah
Perez and Hezron, Ram and Amminadab
Nashon and Salmon and Boaz and Obed
Jesse
the father of David
Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah and Asa
Jehoshaphat, Joram, Ahaziah Joash,
Amaziah, Uzziah
and Jotham
Ahaz and son Hezekiah
Follow the line… follow the line…
Manasseh and Amon, Josiah, Jeconiah,
Shealtiel
Zerub-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-
ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-babel
Abiud, Eliakim, Azor and
Zadok
Achim, Eliud, Eleazar
Matthan and Jacob and Joseph the husband
Of Mary of whom came the Savior
Let My People Go
© Jamie Soles Mar 24, 2003
Nile to blood, your mighty river
Frogs from the Nile tell you I will deliver
These gnats that are swarming
you
Warning you, let My people go
Flies by the millions bury your home
Cattle are dying and the why is not
unknown
Ashes to ashes to boils
Won’t you let My people go
Even the hardest heart can be shattered
When the hail grows large, falling like a hammer
When the locust devours everything that’s green
And
the sun goes down into darkness
So thick you can feel it
Judgment day is dawned, you really should have known
From the serf out in the field to the Pharaoh on the throne
The life of your firstborn is over
Let
My people go
The breath of your firstborn is snuffed out
Let My people go
The blood of your firstborn for
My boys
Come on, let My people go
Do It Again
© Jamie Soles Mar 7, 2003
One silver plate; one hundred thirty shekels
One silver basin; seventy shekels
According to the shekel of
the sanctuary
Full of fine flour mixed with oil
For a cereal offering
One golden dish, ten shekels; full
of incense
One young bull, one ram
One male lamb a year old for a burnt offering
One male goat for
a sin offering
And for the sacrifice of peace offerings;
Two oxen, five rams
Five male goats and five male
lambs a year old
This never gets old!
Let’s do it again! (tomorrow)
Sign of the Cross
© Jamie Soles March 10, 2003
Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun camp on the east side
Reuben, Simeon, and Gad camp on the south side
Ephraim,
Manasseh, and Benjamin camp on the west side
Dan, Asher, and Naphtali camp on the north side
Levi camps in
the middle
He guards God’s tabernacle
God lives right in the center
And on every side
Israel abides
Israel met in the middle
To worship at God’s holy place
Then home to their tent and their tribe
By
God’s design, forming the sign of the cross
Land of Canaan
© Jamie Soles May 15, 2003
We were slaves in Egypt, but God brought us along
We’re marching through the desert land
Six hundred
thousand strong
We go to take possession of the place where we belong
The land of Canaan waits
For
us to dispossess
The Hittites, the Girgashites
The Amorites, the Canaanites
The Perizzites, the Hivites
The Jebusites, the Mennonites
(Oops! Not the Mennonites!)
These other nations must be taken
The Hittites,
the Girgashites
The Amorites, the Canaanites
The Perizzites, the Hivites
The Jebusites, and all their
might
Will fall before the King of Kings
For He is with us
Though our foes are mighty, and number many more
Our God has said that we’ll be like
The sand along the shore
And all the land we tread, He said, is ours forevermore
The whole wide world awaits
For us to dispossess....
Rats! (The Philistines' Lament)
© Jamies Soles Mar 17, 2003
Rats and tumors we have made to represent our cities
We have sinned against the Lord and now we plead for
pity
We thought we had won the war
We thought He was on the floor
Now we’re not so sure…oh
Rats
and tumors we have made to represent our leaders
Such a fitting promenade is headed for our borders
We have done as we were told
‘Ere the day was very old
We did them up in gold… oh
Rats…we thought
that we had conquered
Rats…we thought that Israel’s God would be no more
But here His hand was
heavy and now we’re very sore
He fills us up with fear… get Him out of here!
Rats and tumors
we have made, we hope He will receive them
Put them on a cart behind a cow and there we’ll leave them
If she takes them up from here
With this ark we’ve learned to fear
You will hear us cheer
Rats…we
thought that we had conquered
Rats…we thought that Israel’s God would be no more
But here His
hand was heavy and now we’re very sore
He fills us up with fear… get Him out of here!
Rats…He
came, He saw, He conquered
Rats…and now our god is broken on the floor
For here His hand was heavy
and we are very sore
And we need a change of gods here, that’s for sure!
Bad Guys Part 3
© Jamie Soles Jan 11, 2003
Moab was Israel’s oppressor
With a bulk named Eglon running the joint
Eglon rose to hear a word from
God
And now he knows; he’s gotten the point!
So may all Your enemies perish
But let the righteous
shine like the sun
We are the friends of God and He will save us
Because we worship His Son
Towering
up, Goliath roars out
And he won’t shut up
He makes us all shake
David slings and there is silence
Cause
it’s hard to shout with a hole in your forehead
So may all Your enemies perish....
Abimelech killed all his brothers on a single stone
And called himself King
Turn about;
A single stone was sent to take him out
By the hand of a woman
Upper millstone falling down, falling down, falling down
Upper millstone falling down, crushed a serpent!
Yayyyy!
Remember Me
© Jamie Soles Apr 25, 2003
Abigail, wise and beautiful
Unlike Nabal, who was harsh and evil
Full of dread for the things he said
She
knew that he was good as dead
Abigail wasted no time
Abigail took bread and took wine
And up on her donkey
she rode
To meet David out on the road
And when he was found
She fell to the ground and said…
David,
don’t do it!
Don’t cover your hands with blood
For God will build a house for you
And you need
to glorify God
Let this grief be far from you
Give vengeance to the Lord
And when the Lord has dealt with
you
The way that He has promised to
Remember me, remember me
David, don’t do it!
Don’t cover
your hands with blood
For God will build a house for you
And you need to glorify God
Let this grief be far
from you
Give vengeance to the Lord
And when the Lord has dealt with you
The way that He has promised to
Remember me, remember me
Remember me, please remember me
Seventy Years
© Jamie Soles Mar 31, 2003
Ruins abound in our old home town
Broken timbers are charred
And the stones are shattered
Once holy ground
has become a mound
For we treated the Lord
Like He never mattered
Seventy years we will be gone from here
Seventy years in a land not our own
Seventy years, according to His promise
Seventy years seems a life
away
Build you a house, take a wife
Plant a garden, have a son
Have a daughter, may you multiply there
Pray
for the peace of the place He will send you
For the Lord will defend you
If you trust in his care
Seventy
years we will be gone from here
Seventy years in a land not our own
Seventy years, according to His
promise
Seventy years seems a life away
Seventy years we will be gone from here
Seventy years in a
land not our own
Seventy years, according to His promise
Seventy years seems a life-time away
Homeland (Psalm 137)
© Jamie Soles Feb 4, 1998
Such a long way from our homeland
By the rivers of Babylon
There we sat down and we wept
When we remembered
Zion
There we hung our harps in sorrow
There our captors bid us sing
Saying ‘"Give a song of Zion
Put a smile on and sing"
How shall we now sing the Lord’s song
In a land beyond the promise
If
I lose you oh Jerusalem
May my right hand forget
If I fail now to remember you
Let my tongue be unemployed
If I do not lift Jerusalem
High above my chief joy
Lord You saw them, Lord You heard them
When Jerusalem
fell
How they cried for its destruction
Like their father in hell
Blessed be the one who rids you
Of your children, of your future
Blessed be the one who pays you
In the way you deserve
Oh child of
mighty Babylon
Whose destruction is for certain
Blessed be the one who pays you
In the way you deserve
You Can Go
© Jamie Soles Apr 11, 2003
Did you hear that message from the king of Persia?
He said the Lord of Heaven gave him a command
To build
a house for Him up in Jerusalem
And all who worship the Lord
May God be with you, you can go!
Do you
remember when we left Jerusalem
The prophet said it would be seventy years
The time has come and gone
It is a brand new dawn
And now we’re coming home
Coming up from here
You can go, your exile is over
Enter
into the joy of the Lord
Time has come to show you favor
Now you need to know
Praise the Lord, you
can go
As the Hart
Lyrics by Dewey Westra; 1931 Music from Geneva, 1551
© Standing Committee for the publication of the Book Of Praise of the Canadian Reformed
Churches. Used by Permission.
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As the hart about to falter
In its trembling agony
Longs for flowing streams of water
So, O God,
I long for Thee
Yes, athirst for Thee I cry
God of life, O when shall I
Come again to stand before
Thee
In Thy presence and adore Thee
Bitter tears of lamentation
Are my food by night and day
In my deep
humiliation
“Where
is now your God”, they say
Oh, my soul’s poured out in me
When I bring to memory
How the throngs
I would assemble
Shouting praises in Thy temple
O my soul, why are you grieving
Why disquieted in me
Hope in God, your faith retrieving
He will still your refuge be
I again shall laud His grace
For the
comfort of His face
He will show His help and favor
For He is my God and Savior
King
© Jamie Soles Nov 25, 1996
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In the garden long ago
Adam wipes his plate, seals his fate and turns to go
There ain't no refuge in this
place
From the consequent destruction of this race
But as he stumbles through his tears
Hope is falling on
his ears
There'll come a King
Abraham looks up in the night
He sees the stars against the dark sky, many
points of light
He thinks about the promise given
That all the nations on the earth would be blessed in him
And though his life would soon be done
He knew God would send a Son
Who would be King
For unto us
a child is born and unto us a Son is given
He'll live and die and rise again and reign on high from
heaven
David plays and David sings
And he can write and he can fight like anything
David rules his people
well
He's clinging to a promise time will tell
A descendant of his own
Would forever hold his throne
as the King
All this purpose divine to bring about a mystery
In the fullness of time
And now the rest is
history
Our history
Joseph holds his little boy
He's just a baby but something more
These little hands,
they're holding you
Come and see what God can do
For unto us a child is born....
Apostles' Creed
© Jamie Soles Aug 19, 2002
(No sample available)
I believe in God the Father Almighty
Maker of heaven and earth
And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son,
Our Lord
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
Born of the virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate
Was crucified, dead, and buried
He descended into hell
The third day He rose again from the dead
He ascended
into heaven
And sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty
From thence He shall come to judge the
living and the dead
I believe in the Holy Spirit
I believe a holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins
The resurrection of the body
And the life everlasting, amen
Album Comments
Up From Here is a thematic collection of Bible story and list songs, centred around the theme of the Exodus. There are many stories in Scripture which replay this motif over and over, and Jamie Soles has gathered several of them together here.
The songs begin in the Garden of Eden, rejoicing in God’s good gifts; then mourn at the Fall and the resulting fall-out. The title track is taken from the story of Joseph, when he is giving instructions to his brothers about his bones; a highlight comes in the deliverance from Egypt. The songs follow Israel through the desert, picking out scenes which are not often pondered; they follow the Ark of God into Philistia with the resulting hilarity. They visit Abigail, who needs an Exodus, and ultimately Israel herself in the same situation at the exile into Babylon. They rejoice greatly upon Israel’s release to come back home, but reflect upon the need for a greater deliverance yet. They wait and long for the true Deliverer to come, they marvel at the Incarnation, they express their faith in Jesus, the promised King.
Is this a children’s album? Yes, and more! It is built to appeal to those who love the Scriptures, and to assist those who want their children to be full of Bible stories. Built for children, but definitely not childish. Full of humour, but not silly. Sober, but with an underlying laughter which boils over quite often.
Credits
All songs written and arranged by Jamie Soles, @ 2003, except “As The Hart”.
“As The Hart” Geneva, 1551, from the Book Of Praise, used by permission. Copyright held by the Standing Committee for the Publication of the Book Of Praise of the Canadian Reformed Churches.
Produced, engineered, and mixed by Craig Learmont for HMG International
Recorded at the White House Recording Company
Gibson, McPherson, and Epiphone high-strung guitars by Jamie Soles
Bass by Jamie Soles, except for “Land Of Canaan”, bass by Craig Learmont
Drums, percussion, organ, lead guitar, and pitch-shifted cows by Craig Learmont
Lead vocals by Jamie Soles
Backup vocals by Valerie Soles and Jamie Soles
Kids vocals by Timbrel, Zion, and Judah Soles
Blues harmonica on “Let My People Go” by John Barach Jr.
Cello on “Homeland” by Gavin Meyers
Echo vocal, blues harmonica, and cello recorded in Sexsmith by Jon Plett
Many Thanks to…
- My lovely bride Val, who gets better with time. So pleased I get to be your man!
- Timbrel, Zion, and Judah, my singers, and Jewel, Jonathan, Eden, Chloe, and whoever you are, my upcoming singers. Reward upon reward. Wonderful! (Psalm 127)
- The Body of Christ at Covenant Reformed Church in Grande Prairie. I am very happy to be a part of you!
- Arie & Marion DeBoon, Terry and Cindy Morin, Richard and Wendy Peters, for your fine hospitality and helps during our recording time.
- Craig Learmont for all your painstaking work in making this album sound good.
- Jon Plett for helping me fill in around the edges.
- John Barach for great blues harping, fine friendship, and wonderful sermons.
- Gavin Meyers, Leo and Yolanda Wattel, Dick and Joanne Barendregt, and many others played their parts well.
- Peter Leithart for inspiring reading.
Thanks be to the Triune God, who revealed Himself to us in stories and patterns; who showed us His Exodus theme so many times in so many stories, giving us great hope in Him for the future.
- Jamie Soles Sept.3/2003 Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada
