"Lord, I Lift Your Name on High" by Rick Founds was performed by the Pender UMC choir and congregation on September 8, 2024. This uplifting performance features Heidi Jacobs on piano, Abe Garver on cello, and AJ Rios on drums. Together, they create a heartfelt and powerful rendition of this beloved worship song.
Join us in celebrating this special moment of praise and worship, where the joy of lifting God's name high fills the sanctuary. We hope this brings peace and encouragement to your day!
Though California artist Rick Founds (b. 1954) has more than two hundred songs listed in CCLI’s [Christian Copyright Licensing International] Song Select, he is known primarily for this song composed in 1989. CCLI’s Top 25 Songs recorded “Lord, I lift” as the number one song sung in American churches between 1995 and 2002 for seven and a half years, the only song with this distinction. Worship Leader columnist Phil Christensen and novelist Shari MacDonald give “Lord, I lift” high praise.
The song’s origins, however, are humble. The morning of the composition was conceived, Founds had read an article on the hydraulics of the water cycle—how vapor, clouds, rain, and streams form and rise again to the clouds, replenishing the earth. Upon reflection, Founds found a similar cycle in Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension. He then referred to his 1980s Macintosh computer with a disc that contained the entire Bible. Following his daily devotional practice, Founds read the scripture scrolling on his computer screen as he played his guitar, alternating Old and New Testament passages.
"One particular day, as I was having my devotional period, the Lord impressed on my heart that his work on our behalf was a cycle of events—Christ came from heaven to earth, gave his life on the cross for us, was buried, and three days later rose from the dead. He then went back to his heavenly Father, making the cycle and our salvation complete. That, essentially, is the lyric of the song. I picked up my guitar and began to sing, “Lord, I lift Your name on high.” (Terry, 2008, p. 169)"
Though the song’s reception at an evening Bible study was positive, Founds had no idea it would become his best-known composition. For him, it was simply another of the many songs he was writing at the time. He was serving as the musician for a large congregation in California. Nearby, Maranatha! Music, the leading publisher and recording studio for contemporary Christian music of that time, soon picked up the song, and it spread quickly.
