We Look Behind at All You’ve Done

The Story Behind the Song

Ken Bible (b. 1950) is a present-day author, teacher, publisher, and hymn writer. He has written 15 books and has had over 400 songs published. His original hymns have appeared in 20 major hymnals (four are in our current “Baptist Hymnal”) and he has edited or compiled four collections, including “Sing to the Lord,” “Wesley Hymns,” “Dare to Run Songbook,” and “Master Chorus Book.”

But he is not merely an academic or “professional” who lives in an ivory tower far above the masses. He is active as a Sunday School teacher in his home church and co-founded with his wife Gloria “Living the Natural Way” ministry as a “means of reaching out to those who often aren’t reached by Christian materials.”

In his hymn “We Look Behind at All You’ve Done,” Bible encourages us to look back on our own individual histories with God (stanza 1), to look around and see what God is continuing to do (stanza 2), and to look ahead in anticipation of what is yet to come (stanza 3).

Bible wrote: “As I reflect on my personal salvation history, I can’t get to the end before I am overcome by how patiently and tenderly He has carried me. I have sailed my whole life on a sea of mercy. Looking back, I see only His hand, moving, guiding, upholding, weaving His wonders in me and for me. His faithfulness has brought a consistency to my life that I could never give it.” His testimony has been echoed by countless individuals throughout time, including Moses, who recorded: “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode” (Exodus 15:13).

But God’s work is not finished. As Henry Blackaby and Claude King put forth in “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God,” God is always at work around us. And part of that work is changing and shaping His children into the people He’s called us to be. Paul wrote to the church at Rome, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed…” (Romans 12:2), and he assured the church at Corinth that “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image” (2 Corinthians 3:18). The author of the hymn agrees: “I see that my Father is forming His Son in me. Amazing, but He really is! Though I am painfully aware of my imperfections, I can taste the fruit of the Spirit in my life.”

Each follower of Jesus has a unique background. Some were born into families that were headed by parents who knew, loved and served the Lord, so as children those followers came to also trust Christ and began their journey of faith at a young age. Others were saved later in life after years marked by dissolution, despair or depravity. And each follower of Jesus is being formed differently as God knows is best. But what every believer shares is a common future. While we may not see specific details, we can get a “glimpse of all that is to be” through the revelation given to John: “I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven!… After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 4:1, 7:9-10).

So when we sing in the first stanza “Holy Father, You are mercy!” let’s look back and recall His great love as shown through His guidance and provision. As we sing in the second “Loving Father, You are faithful!” let’s look about us in gratitude for His ongoing work of making us more and more like Jesus. As Paul wrote, “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). And in the last stanza, when we sing “We exalt You!” we’ll look forward to that day when we gather, not just with our brothers and sisters of our church at this time, but with all the redeemed of all the ages before the throne of God. Alleluia! Alleluia!

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