Highlands – Hillsong United
This time around we’re taking a walk through Highlands, by Hillsong United.
This is my current favourite for a few reasons, one of which leapt out at me the first time I heard it. It opens with:
Oh how high would I climb mountains
If the mountains were where you hide
Oh how far I’d scale the valleys
If you graced the other side
Oh how long have I chased rivers
From lowly seas to where they rise
Against the rush of grace descending
From the source of its supply
The lengths we would go to to find God. The obstacles we would overcome and the trials we would endure just to experience His presence. And then, not long after comes the simple line:
You’re just not that hard to find
We can just turn to Him any time. We can experience His presence at any moment in our lives if we just ask. Jesus’ sacrifice enables us to have a relationship with the living God.
It goes on to follow a similar theme to another favourite of mine, Blessed be the Name, highlighting the power of praise as a spiritual weapon for us that we should wield when times are good and when times are bad, with equal vigour. It’s fascinating that secular motivational speakers will encourage you to cultivate an “attitude of gratitude” and find things to be thankful for in everyday life in order to maximise your motivation and keep you in “good spirits”. If they only knew that this is a biblical truth, stemming from the power of praising God through thick and thin.
I will praise You on the mountain
I will praise You when the mountain’s in my way
You’re the summit where my feet are
So I will praise You in the valleys all the same
And then comes another simple yet powerful truth, a slightly different take on this same theme, but an eye opening one.
No less God within the shadows
No less faithful when the night leads me astray
You’re the heaven where my heart is
In the highlands and the heartache all the same
Of course there’s no less God in the shadows, but had we thought of Him quite like that before hearing it? Of course He’s no less faithful, even if we’re straying a little from our path, but is that how we saw it before it was pointed out? These few lines don’t validate us when we sin, they don’t free us from the consequences of our sin, but they do show the nature and the love of God the Father, with us at all times. During those moments when we might feel distant from Him, He is anything but distant from us.
The verses that follow carry this theme further, and then the final closing verse reminds us that the times we are in our darkest place are when God is extending to us the most wonderful grace, and that this is opened up to us through Jesus.
From the gravest of all valleys
Come the pastures we call grace
A mighty river flowing upwards
From a deep but empty grave
You can access a link to the song here.
You can also find it on our Spotify playlist.
Blessings,
Alec