The songs on Before the Throne each communicate a certain aspect of Sojourn’s corporate worship liturgy. This liturgy includes what we call a “prayer for illumination,” during which we communicate our desire to hear God’s Word and to understand it.

It would be hard to imagine a song that could communicate this better than “We Are Listening,” by Jeremy Quillo (visit his web page from our “Helpful Links” section to hear his original acoustic demo of this song, as well as his demo of another song that Sojourn picked up and recorded on Before the Throne, “Come and Sing,” and finished versions of two songs from These Things I Remember, “Then Sings My Soul” and “Psalm Fifty Seven”). And now, Jeremy tells the story behind “We Are Listening:”

“We Are Listening” is one of the few songs I have been “commissioned” to write; that is, where I was given a specific topic and a specific time frame. When Mike (Cosper, Sojourn’s Worship Arts Pastor) first approached me about writing a few songs for the record he thought the theme of hearing God’s Word would be a good challenge for me. He told me to base it on the idea that “we are listening” and I thought “Well, there’s my title.”

From there I began thinking about how the words God speaks are so much more than words written on a page. I thought about how they speak His wisdom, and that they are our very life. I thought about how every time I open the Bible, I can “see with new eyes” and hear something totally fresh, no matter how many times I’ve heard it before.

I thought about how I am constantly struggling to understand it, even though I have been around it from birth; and that no matter what, “I still believe that You will help me understand.” I thought about how all of these ideas have to come together in the person of Jesus, and that He is the Word made flesh, and that when I long for God’s word, then I am also longing to “see Christ: the Truth and new life, the Word that made the universe.”

Really the song is a prayer for all of these things, and that God will allow me to keep coming closer to Him through His Word; and that I will find my delight in Him.

As far as the music, I think I just wanted to keep things simple and base it around something that fit. I realize that “fitting” is very subjective so I pretty much do what I usually do, which is put the song in a key, tempo, etc. that I like and hope that others can connect with it as well. I guess my hope for the song, just like any worship song, is that it will help people pray and connect with God in a way that is real for them.

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