mgpcpastor's blog

Never Alone is a song that we haven’t used yet. A midi file would help me on Sunday nights. Maybe I’ll see about a backing mp3. Sunday mornings, well we’ve been busy.
By my reckoning it’s the last really top line song that’s emerged from the EMU studio. (Rob Smith’s You Never Change is my other top contender.) This isn’t to denigrate the quality of their current material, but either musically or lyrically (or both) not a lot in recent years seems to have the lasting qualities of this song.
(If pushed for further explanation of the preceding statement my personal test of lasting quality are tunes and words that by their quality pretty quickly embed themselves in your mind and bring you satisfaction when you sing them because they express something you hold truly, but can’t express as well as the song. They’re singable and true.)
I read Simone’s blog and apparently she takes a bit of grief for the line ‘God departs’ in verse 2, which is unfortunate.
My understanding is that if Christ incarnate is Emmanuel, ‘God with us’, then, in some meaningful and real sense, remaining under the power of death for three days means that he was not with us. He bore our sin away on His perfectly obedient human and divine nature. And I’d say that while affirming that He was in paradise during that time, and was also not absent from any part of creation, being fully God and fully man. The resurrection marks His return to life, to us, and his exaltation. It’s evocative poetry that invites us marvel at the fact that both Jesus’ humanity and divinity were present in His saving work.
Here’s the lyrics:
1.
We’re not alone, for Christ is here
Immanuel our God come near
We’re not alone, for to our world
Jesus has come, eternal Word.
And as he speaks, our souls laid bare
Naked, ashamed, sin is made clear
And yet he clothes us in his love
Never alone, Christ is with us, is with us.
2.
The longest walk, earth’s darkest day
The pressing crowd, his mounting pain.
A heavy load of grief and shame
Breathless that we should breathe again.
“Father forgive them,” comes his cry
Silence from God blackens the sky.
A creeping dread in every heart
Lost in the world now God departs, God departs.
3.
The dawn will come, the sun will rise
Out of the grave we’ll see hope’s light.
Tomb opened wide, stone rolled away
Morning has come, a brand new day.
“He isn’t here,” the angel said.
“He is alive no longer dead.”
Our hearts are lifted, souls raised high
Christ is with us, Christ is our life, he’s our life.
4.
Never alone, is now our cry
In joy, in grief, in lonely sin.
Never alone, for Christ is ours
He lives in us, we live in him.
And ’til we reach that final day
When fears are gone, cast far away
We’ll live secure, trust in his love,
Never alone, Christ is with us, he’s with us.

Lyrics: © 2006 Simone Richardson
Music: © 2006 Philip Percival

Here’s a YouTube from EMU Music of the song being sung.