Prolific singer/songwriter Phil Wickham continues to gain momentum with his modern style of vertical worship and poetic lyrics. Leading corporate worship nationwide, Wickham, known for hits such as "You’re Beautiful" and "Divine Romance," describes the daily truths he is learning with a tender yet poignant voice and a passionate cry of worship. I love Phil Wickham’s critically acclaimed sophomore album Cannons and the distinguished singer/songwriter really found his voice on his third studio album, Heaven and Earth, which found him creating melodies that are infectious with contemplative and honest messages of surrender and abandon.

After selling a quarter million albums and over a half million song downloads to date, airing a chart-topping radio single, and receiving accolades for his previous three albums, Fair Trade Services’ recording artist Phil Wickham returns with his latest album Response. Wickham provides listeners with 11 tracks that seek to give a voice to humanity’s acceptance of God’s love in any circumstance. In the same way that the Psalms offer expressions of joy, sorrow, repentance, hope and victory, Response gives a voice to the appreciation and adoration of God in every chapter of life.

I recently had the great opportunity to interview Phil Wickham in person after his concert appearance with Shane & Shane about “At Your Name (Yahweh, Yahweh).”

Please tell me the personal story behind co-writing this song with Tim Hughes.

We started writing the song together in London after a worship conference that he invited me over to be a part of. It was an amazing time of worship, and we led over 2,000 UK worship leaders--all gathered together singing. I was super blessed to be there. I loved getting to meet and hang out with my now really good friend Tim Hughes, who I’ve always looked up to as a songwriter and worship leader.

We had planned to get together and write a song a day after the conference was finished. We were so full of what had happened at the conference and so blessed by what God had done; we were excited to get out our guitars. We wrote one song, and we had time left to write one more song. Tim showed me this idea he had for a song about shouting the Lord’s Name. I was excited and I said, “How about we just shout His Name? Yahweh Yahweh!” So the chorus came really quickly and then we ran out of time. Over the next couple of weeks, we e-mailed different ideas to each other back and forth about the verses. It was really cool how we used the web and technology to write the song from our own locations. He also put the song on his album Love Shine Through and I put the song on my album.

Please tell me about any Bible verses that connect to the message of the song.

Psalm 66:1-3: “Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! Sing out the honor of His name; Make His praise glorious. Say to God, ‘How awesome are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.’”

...and Psalm 81:1: “Sing aloud to God our strength; Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob.”

What do you consider to be the take-away message for listeners?

It’s such a blessing to shout out God’s Name. We wanted to sing about Creation and how at the Name of God, mountains shake and oceans tumble at the power of God. That’s what we wanted to sing about. It’s one of those songs that is so written for the Church to sing as a congregation--it’s not at all about me. It’s cool to be a part of something like that. I’ve been part of just a few songs like that, like “You’re Beautiful” and “Cannons,” where they aren’t Phil Wickham songs, but songs that we can sing together as the Body of Christ.

Lyrics:
At Your Name
The mountains shake and crumble
At Your Name
The oceans roar and tumble

At Your Name
Angels will bow
The earth will rejoice
Your people cry out

Lord of all the Earth
We shout Your Name
Shout Your Name
Filling up the skies with endless praise
Endless praise
Yahweh Yahweh
We love to shout Your Name
Oh Lord

At Your Name
The morning breaks new glory
At Your Name
Creation sings Your story
At Your Name
Angels will bow
The earth will rejoice
Your people cry out

There is no one like our God
We will praise You
Praise You
There is no one like our God
We will sing
We will sing
Jesus You are God
We will sing

Lord of all the Earth
We shout Your Name
Shout Your Name
Filling up the skies with endless praise
Endless praise
Yahweh Yahweh
We love to shout Your Name
Oh Lord
Oh Lord (Oh)
Yahweh Yahweh
We love to shout Your Name
Oh Lord

Matthew Henry’s commentary on Psalm 81:1: “The worshippers of God are excited to their work, and are taught, by singing this psalm, to stir up both themselves and one another to it. Our errand is, to give unto God the glory due unto His Name, and in all our religious assemblies we must mind this as our business. In doing this we must eye God as our strength, and as the God of Jacob. He is the strength of Israel, as a people; for He is a God in covenant with them, who will powerfully protect, support, and deliver them, who fights their battles and makes them do valiantly and victoriously. He is the strength of every Israelite; by His grace we are enabled to go through all our services, sufferings, and conflicts; and to Him, as our strength, we must pray, and we must sing praise to Him as the God of all the wrestling seed of Jacob, with whom we have a spiritual communion. We must do this by all the expressions of holy joy and triumph. It was then and is now to be done by singing psalms, singing aloud, and making a joyful noise. The pleasantness of the harp and the awfulness of the trumpet intimate to us that God is to be worshipped with cheerfulness and joy with reverence and godly fear. Singing aloud and making a noise intimate that we must be warm and affectionate in praising God, that we must with a hearty good-will show forth His praise, as those that are not ashamed to own our dependence on Him and obligations to Him, and that we should join many together in this work; the more the better; it is the more like heaven.”

“At Your Name (Yahweh, Yahweh)” is a surefire hit song. It’s exactly the type of catchy corporate worship song I’ve come to love from Phil Wickham, like “Cannons” and “You’re Beautiful.” The song is instantly singable and worshipful with a great chorus: “Lord of all the earth, we shout Your Name, shout Your Name, Filling up the skies, with endless praise, endless praise, Yahweh, Yahweh, we love to shout Your Name, oh Lord.”

Phil Wickham’s enthusiastic and reverent style of writing and singing praise and worship songs has consistently been a draw for me. Wickham’s prayerful sentiments are consistently filled with his personal adoration of God. Response is no exception.

What I really love about this song is how it is a call to shout God’s Name, “Yahweh, Yahweh!” God’s Name is worthy of proclamations of joy! It is a sweet sound for God to hear us shout His Name. We should not be ashamed to sing of our dependence on God and show Him reverence. This is an amazing new worship song for the Church and I love to shout God’s Name! Amen!