Set Me Free (Lyric Video) - Jonathan Ogden
Like many of my favourite songs, Set Me Free seemed to just pour out of me in one writing session. The more I write songs the more mysterious it seems to me. I have moments where I’m crafting and refining, but there are also times it feels like I just showed up at the right time and happened to catch something special. That’s how it felt writing this song. It felt prophetic.
These past few years I’ve been learning what it means to live free from shame. Something that has held me back for most of my life. I wanted to write from the point of view of finally feeling the release from the grip that shame can have on a heart and mind. It began with a meditation and a paraphrase of Psalm 40:1. “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.”
“I waited a long, long time
I prayed that I’d find peace
I know that you heard my cry
‘Cause then you turned to me
Felt like waking from my sleep
Like a river to the sea
You set me free”
From that moment the song changes tempo and shifts into a new section, I saw the tempo change like a change of heart. Or even like a doorway to a new place, a movement into a new position. And then the words started to flow. I wrote about seeing visions of Jesus:
“I saw you in the garden
Seven stars inside your hand”
And I reflect upon the feelings of finally feeling free of all the weight of life and the things that held me down for so long.
“Then we danced along the mountains, and I felt that weight subside
And my shame became a memory, in the brightness of your eyes.”
In reality, this felt like a song from the future. I didn’t necessarily feel “free” as I wrote this song. I still wrestled with the same things, I still carried the same questions and the weight that I’d so often felt. But picturing this reality of freedom some time in the future gave me hope for the present moment. I realise that there are some ways we can experience freedom in this lifetime, and there are others that I may not experience until I reach eternity.
The song took on extra meaning for me as I thought about eternity - our true home and ultimate place of freedom. In the final weeks of her life, my Mum asked me if I was writing anything new. I had just finished this song so I played it to her and it seemed to bring a smile to her face. It ended up being the last song of mine she heard.
Weeks later when I was listening to the song, I heard it as if it were written from her perspective, experiencing the true freedom of eternal life with her Lord and Saviour. The song has a special place in my heart for that reason. Sometimes when a song flows out, I’m not even sure myself what it means. But when it takes on a new meaning even after I’ve written it, it makes me wonder if the song was a gift from beyond myself.
Stream 'Set Me Free': slinky.to/SetMeFree
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