The Contrast of Our Savior

Song: “Above All”

“Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9). “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed" (Is. 53:4-5).

This is the story of the writing of one of the most moving and thought provoking worship songs of recent years. As you will see, it has not only touched the lives of Christians around the globe, its message has been heard by some of the most powerful people in the world today. It was written by two of America’s most talented and widely used worship leaders and songwriters.

Lenny LeBlanc said of his early life, “I became involved in music quite by accident. One day I was visiting in a friend’s home in Leominster, Mass., and several of the young people there were playing instruments. They asked me if I would sing with them. I agreed to do so, and after a few songs they said, ‘You sound pretty good.’ I responded, ‘I do?’ They then asked if I would sing with them in a talent show to be held at the school. I was surprised with their invitation, but agreed to participate. While we were singing in the contest I was so timid I turned my back toward the audience. But, we won nonetheless.”

Lenny went on to a very successful career in pop music, at first as a studio musician on recordings for some of the most widely known singers of our day. LeBlanc confessed, “My career was my ‘god’ and I began to worship the gift God had given me, even to the point of leaving my family behind.”

He also relates, “I was not at a low point in life, nor was I looking or searching for God, but a good friend, a drug smuggler, called me late one night and said, ‘Lenny, I got saved and I’m going to heaven.’ He then said, ‘Lenny I want you to be there with me. Are you saved?’ He sent me a Bible and for the next few weeks God began to reveal His love to me. I began to realize how shallow and selfish my life was and there in my home I cried out to Jesus for mercy and forgiveness. I could have continued in the field of pop music, but I sensed that God had something different for me.”

Paul Baloche grew up a Catholic in his hometown of Maple Shade, New Jersey, in the Philadelphia area. He began to play in bands that performed in unsavory places—in the clubs of Philadelphia and Atlantic City. He became caught up in the rock music scene. What happened next is unusual.

Paul told me, “At eighteen years of age, I went to one of the weekend Amway conferences where they tell you how to grow your business. Sunday morning was an optional part of the weekend, so I decided to attend a nondenominational service, expecting to pick up some pointers on how to become successful in this business. The same guys were up giving testimonies of their faith in Christ who had been speaking in the meetings the day before. They told us, ‘It’s not about money, it’s about Jesus.’ They told about how their lives had been changed. I was really affected by it all. They even had a worship band that I really liked.

“When they gave an altar call for any who wanted to receive Christ, I went forward and asked the Lord to come into my life and He totally changed me. I started going to an Assembly of God church and became a part of the music ministry.”

In 1991, several years after Paul and Lenny had become experienced and well-known songwriters and worship leaders, Lenny invited Paul to come to his home in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to help with the music writing of a project soon to be recorded. They began to share ideas that each had started. Paul sang for Lenny the verse of a song that he had started, and had actually sung to the people of his church in Texas, using several different choruses. But, he was not happy with any of the choruses he had written.

Before retiring for the night Lenny said, “I like your verse and I think I will try to come up with a suitable chorus for it.” Lenny told me, “Early the next morning, while Paul was still sleeping in his room, I slipped out to my studio and God gave me the lyric and the melody for the finishing of the song. When Paul got up he and I wrote another new song and worked on a few other things before anything was said about the endeavor discussed the night before.”

“After lunch I shared with him my ideas for the chorus. He almost fell out of his chair, because it was so different from what he thought it would be. When you hear the verse it would seem that a writer would expound on Christ’s majesty, might and power. Yet, I decided to go immediately into His crucifixion.”

Paul’s verse began:

“Above all powers, above all Kings,
Above all nations and all created things,
Above all wisdom and all the ways of man,
You were here before the world began.
Above all kingdoms, above all thrones,
Above all wonders the world has ever known;
Above all wealth and treasures of the earth,
There’s no way to measure what You’re worth.” 

Lenny’s chorus followed:

“Crucified, and laid behind a stone;
You lived to die rejected and alone,
Like a rose, trampled on the ground,
You took the fall, and thought of me,
Above all!”

Lenny continued, “The verse, with a few minor changes, and the chorus I had written seemed to fit perfectly. Each time we sang the chorus Paul and I began to weep. It was difficult to get through it, even once. I said to Paul, ‘This is going to be a huge song for the church.’ I knew in my heart that it would be so.” The song today has become part of the worship of millions of Christians around the world.

Both Lenny and Paul continue to write and record songs, teach worship seminars, and lead great crowds in praise to the Lord around the world. Yet, the ministry that seems to be very near and dear to each of their hearts is that of being the worship leader in a local church—Paul in Lindale, Texas and Lenny in Florence, Alabama.

Reflection: Only when we get to heaven will we be able to understand the suffering of our Lord when He paid, on our behalf, a debt He did not owe, because we owed a debt we could not pay. What a wonderful Savior!

Lindsay Terry has been a song historian for more than 40 years, and has written widely on the background of great hymns and worship songs including the books I Could Sing of Your Love Forever (2008) and The Sacrifice of Praise (2002).