The Story Behind The Song: "We Are Listening" by Jeremy Quillo

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. 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.