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Music Monday – El Shaddai

January 15, 2018

 

Have you ever had one of those weeks where things just never seemed to stop; when one thing after another happened and you felt like you never even had a chance to come up for air?

That was me this last week. I had so much come at me that some things just had to be left undone. Important things had to be left incomplete so that more important things could be finished.
The song I chose for today’s Music Monday is one of the songs that gets me through days like that. Its focus is who God is.
The song is El Shaddai.
It was written by Michael Card and John Thompson. We most often connect the song with Amy Grant who made it popular when she recorded it on her 1982 Age to Age album.
 
The title, El Shaddai, comes from a Hebrew name for God, meaning God Almighty. This song is one of the only Contemporary Christian songs to have almost half the lyrics in Hebrew. In case you ever wondered just what all those words meant, here is a breakdown:
 

El Shaddai (אל שׁדי) is most often translated as “God Almighty”.

El-Elyon na Adonai (אל עליון נא אדני) is a combination of two names for God, meaning “God Most High, please my Lord”. (The ‘ai’ in ‘Adonai’ is a possessive.) Na (נא) is a particle of entreaty, translated “please” or “I/we beseech thee.”

Erkamka na Adonai (נה אדונים) is based on Psalm 18:1  Erḥamkha (ארחמך) Adonai, “I love you, my Lord.” Psalm 18:1 is the only place that the Hebrew Bible uses this verb for love.

Erkamka na is also from Exodus 34:14 meaning “jealous” – for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

“El Elyon The Most High God. Stresses God’s strength, sovereignty, and supremacy

“El Olam: The Everlasting God. Emphasizes God’s unchangeableness and is connected with His inexhaustibleness
El Shaddai
El Shaddai, El Shaddai,
El-Elyon na Adonia,
Age to age you’re still the same,
By the power of the name.
El Shaddai, el Shaddai,
Erkamka na Adonai,
We will praise and lift you high,
El Shaddai.
Through your love and through the ram,
You saved the son of Abraham;
Through the power of your hand,
Turned the sea into dry land.
To the outcast on her knees,
You were the God who really sees,
And by your might,
You set your children free.
El Shaddai, El Shaddai,
El-Elyon na Adonia,
Age to age you’re still the same,
By the power of the name.
El Shaddai, El Shaddai,
Erkamka na Adonai,
We will praise and lift you high,
El Shaddai.
Through the years you’ve made it clear,
That the time of Christ was near,
Though the people couldn’t see
What Messiah ought to be.
Though your word contained the plan,
They just could not understand
Your most awesome work was done
Through the frailty of your son.
El Shaddai, el Shaddai,
El-Elyon na Adonai,
Age to age you’re still the same,
By the power of the name.
El Shaddai, el Shaddai,
Erkamka na Adonai,
I will praise yo ’till I die,
El Shaddai.
El Shaddai, el Shaddai,
El-Elyon na Adonai,
Age to age you’re still the same,
By the power of the name.
El Shaddai, el Shaddai,
Erkamka na Adonai,
I will praise you ’till I die.
El Shaddai.

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