"Days of Elijah," an Irish Poem

One Sunday morning recently, this song came to mind as I opened my kitchen blinds to the glorious sun and realized that some of my dearest prayers had been answered.  In a spirit of joy and victory that afternoon, I decided to look up more information about this song and its Irish composer, Robin Mark, whose music remains some of my favorite, “Days of Elijah” in particular.  To my dismay and annoyance, a well-known “test” of contemporary songs had failed this one altogether with a composite score of five out of ten and a decided “no”—not even a “perhaps”—on its appropriateness for corporate worship.  I tried to post a comment to the stream of those already “accepted,” but I was unable. 

I felt like informing this self-appointed worship authority that I had indeed enjoyed this song in corporate worship, with one time in particular indelibly imprinted upon my soul. Over fifteen years ago, at an ACSI convention in Raleigh, North Carolina, a congregation of well over one thousand Christian educators lifted our voices to sing this song.  The Holy Spirit descended upon us in power and glory that day and lifted my spirit in the rapturous hope of His soon return.  To this day, I can feel the thrill of joining my voice to God’s army who declares across the classrooms of America, “There is no God like Jehovah!” 

When I found today that Henry Morris of the Institute for Creation Research wrote an entire blog about this as one of his favorite songs, I felt vindicated.  Even though he launched into more of a Bible lesson about Elijah himself, I was able to ground my belief that this song does not deserve the criticisms leveled against it.  If I thought these criticisms were sincere, I would perhaps have more patience, but when I see a score of ten out of ten with a resounding “yes” for songs from questionable megachurches pedaling false doctrine, I have to scowl that something else is going on. 

This critic faulted “Days of Elijah” primarily for its supposed misuse of Scripture, saying it took events out of context and referenced others that never happened.  With a strict literalness not appropriate to any interpretation of poetry, his critique failed to allow for figurative language and symbolism in a poem, especially an Irish poem.  He also betrayed a bit of doctrinal bias against the expectation of the imminent return of Christ, a glorious truth set aside by many a postmillennialist and seldom celebrated in worship songs today.  Whether the accusation of biblical inaccuracy was a pretext for rejecting this song, I don’t know, but where he could have given the benefit of the doubt for an alternate explanation of what he deemed “inaccurate,” he chose to find fault instead.  His criticism that this song would leave unbelievers “bewildered and confused” was the strangest of all, betraying his own false conception of worship.  Worship is not directed even to a congregation of believers, let alone unbelievers, but to God Himself.  To conflate worship with evangelism is to expose a blight on the church of our times.   

Having studied “Days of Elijah” from every angle, I have come to the conclusion that a song does not have to be perfect in order to be powerful.  This song’s doctrine is sound, its poetics compelling, and its musical composition unifying of both, offering an experience of enduring freshness and underlying integrity.  In a day where so many contemporary worship songs are not poems at all and have very little merit musically, poetically, or even biblically but instead employ imagery within easy reach of pagan and cultural associations, “Days of Elijah” stands out as unique and original.  In a rut of worship songs that all sound the same, “Days of Elijah” invites us to take a more serious look at Irish poetry and Celtic music as the perfect vehicle to convey the power of truth.  

It is worth pointing out that this song serves as a bridge between contemporary Christian music and traditional hymns because it welds together a contemporary music style featuring classic Celtic elements and a richly biblical text largely dependent upon the Old Testament, which has been all too often discarded in our times.  Contrary to the criticism that the song is inaccurate biblically, scarcely a single line or phrase of the poem does not come straight out of Scripture.  Biblical illiteracy will indeed block the full impact of this song, but since when is a song’s use of Scripture a problem?  While it is true that understanding the allusions and images used in “Days of Elijah” requires the ability to make inferences from prior knowledge, herein lies a chief irony:  the congregant who does not know the events to which Robin Mark alludes will not, therefore, perceive any of them as inaccurate.  Better that we learn the richness of Mark’s biblical allusions and images than that we discard all of them because of a few technicalities. 

Those who will look below the surface of this poem will not be disappointed; they will discover a poetic artistry true to Scripture which weaves a central theme of the entire Bible:  all of history is culminating towards the return and reign of Christ!  “These are the days of Elijah” but all the “days,” (a phrase repeated six times) will gloriously one day “Behold!” become the “year of Jubilee!”  Who wouldn’t want to sing about that?  And here is where we find a touch of the Irish ballad in its lament of hard times— “famine and darkness and sword”—as juxtaposed with historic heroes who have raised their “voice in the desert,” while “declaring the word of the Lord!”  Referenced in reverse chronological order, Elijah and Moses in verse one are paralleled with Ezekiel and David in verse two.  What is the connection?  Each of them either saw visions of Christ or saw Christ Himself.  And Elijah begins the song as himself a testimony to the coming Rapture as he was swept away from his “desert” of pagan worship in a chariot of fire. 

Paired with Moses who also had a mysterious death, Elijah is also known for joining Moses to meet with Christ before His crucifixion on the Mount of Transfiguration.  Mount Sinai and Mount Carmel testified by fire long ago that “There is no God like Jehovah!” and these men symbolizing all of the law and the prophets who did indeed seek to witness “righteousness being restored” meet with the One Savior through whom righteousness will be restored—not only in our hearts at Mount Calvary but in His millennial reign on Mount Zion— “And out of Zion’s Hill salvation comes!” 

Ezekiel and David both knew what exile felt like and both had visions, David’s literal and Ezekiel’s figurative, of the Temple’s construction after times of great trial.  While, no, David did not “rebuild" the Temple, the song actually says, “and these are the days of Your servant David rebuilding a temple of praise.”  This is not a necessary inaccuracy but a figurative use of both “Your servant David” and “a temple of praise.”  Robin Mark did not say “the temple;” he said, “a temple,” foreshadowing one of the most glorious truths of Scripture, that every believer is a temple of praise, David, the sweet Psalmist of Israel, perhaps most of all.  And Christ Himself, the Son of David, will indeed come to the rebuilt Temple at His return, instituting the perfect worship towards which the entire timeline of history has been moving.  The metaphoric use, therefore, of both “Your servant David” and “a temple of praise” testifies to rich symbolism not restricted to literal historical accuracy.  In the manner that all biblical prophecy is fulfilled in cycles, this use of biblical allusion and imagery should not pose a problem. 

The poem also gains richness for the abruptness of its contrasts without commentary or transition—features important to Irish poetry.  This abrupt contrast occurs between each verse and the glorious burst of chorus: “Behold, He comes!” and also between the bridge (sung a total of, yes, fifteen times!) and the final two repetitions of the chorus.  This “out of nowhere” key change captures the lift of being swept away when Christ returns, “riding on the clouds, shining like the sun, at the trumpet call!”  Is any of us actually and honestly ready to be thus swept away without warning in that moment for which we have been waiting since Enoch’s early days?  The poem achieves an almost palpable juxtaposition of time and eternity in its imagery and melodic movement, in a manner consistent with the tradition of Irish poetry.  Even when the imagery is simple and rough, there is always an elusive element of the mysterious and the mystical in an Irish poem.  Not in any way to be confused with something New Age, this mystique itself finds ultimate meaning in the Rapture.  How mysterious, after all, that all of these biblical heroes of the faith will unite, “riding on the clouds,” for we shall all meet Him in the air! 

Who could desire more to thrill the imagination than that?  And yet the poem’s images are intriguing in themselves.  Four images are negative— “famine, darkness, sword,” and “desert,” while six are transitional— “dry bones, temple, harvest, fields, white,” and “vineyard,” referring to the turning of hearts to the Lord before He returns.  Five images are glorious: “clouds, sun, trumpet, Jubilee, and Zion’s Hill.”  The criticism that the reference to Jubilee is inaccurate because this is not literally fulfilled when Christ returns is ridiculous.  Christ is Himself the Year of Jubilee, as He says even during His first advent (Luke 4:18-19) when He reads this Scripture in the synagogue at Nazareth.  To fault the song for this is not only petty, it points to a doctrinal bias that fails entirely to grasp the true symbolism of what the year of Jubilee even is.  Statements like this not only bespeak poetic ignorance but hint at an ax to grind with Christ’s millennial reign. 

The poem offers so much more richness that is implied rather than stated, and it does this without being in any way tedious or cerebral.  I especially love Mark’s use of diction with the changing purposes for the word, “voice.”  Each of these men—Elijah, Moses, Ezekiel, and David—used his “voice” powerfully for the Lord, but Mark’s two-time use of the line, “Declaring the word of the Lord!” refers to the Lord’s own powerful voice, which will indeed signal His return with a shout!  In the meantime, “Still, we are the voice in the desert crying” (verse 1) and in verse 2, we are not [only] the voice but the laborers “Declaring the word of the Lord!”  This voice is to prepare and to declare the salvation that is coming, but in the chorus, we are also the voice because we “lift” our voice, here exclaiming the salvation that has come!  This is in itself the fulfillment of prophecy in the historic present; and what do we declare?  “There is no God like Jehovah!” over and over across all the centuries--all of God’s children have proven this true!!!  This is a repetition that actually works amid the historical allusions that have been triggered in our minds with the battles that each of these men faced.

I love this song, and I hope this poetic explanation will give you the guilt-free excuse to keep loving it, too!  I can hear its Celtic instruments building tension and excitement at this very moment!  Behold, He comes! 

Lyrics:

https://gccsatx.com/hymns/days-of-elijah/

Song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca9LnzJnpjQ