I bet you wouldn’t be able to guess why Brooke Ligertwood’s (of Hillsong Worship) new solo album is called SEVEN. I’ll give you a hint. It isn’t because this is her seventh album recorded, or because seven is her favorite number. It’s actually an extremely thought-filled and prayer-filled reason.
Take a listen to this interview with Brooke gives us some insight behind the beautiful name, SEVEN.
View this video with Brooke, and other interviews with JOY FM artists videos on the JOY FM YouTube Channel.
Or to hear the full morning show interview with Brooke, click here!
Brooke Ligertwood:
This project is really an act of obedience for me and my husband. I had no desire to ever release a project of worship songs under my own name or under my married name, anything. And the Lord just kind of spoke really clearly around May last year. And it’s been a really wild journey of faith and just so much grace, so much favor. It’s been really, really beautiful.
The album was called Seven, because I said to my husband, when we realized, oh gosh, this is what the Lord’s asking of us, if I’m going to call this something, I need to reverse engineer. Because people are going to say, “Why did you call the album blah, blah, blah?” And so I was like, what do I actually want to talk about?
And so I’ve been sitting in the past year and a half, two years, in the book of Revelation, and read a fantastic book by a guy I talk about all the time. His name is Darrell Johnson, a theologian, called Discipleship on the Edge. It’s an expository journey through the book of Revelation.
I wept the first time I read the opening chapter of this, book because he goes through the opening chapter of Revelation and he explains that image we see of Jesus standing in the middle of his church.
Where the name, SEVEN, comes from
So the album is called Seven, because in the opening chapter of Revelation 1, we read about one like a Son of Man, standing in the middle of the seven lamp stands, and the seven lamp stands are the seven churches.
And I feel like what we need to hear in 2022, what I need to hear is that Jesus is not standing far off. He is standing right in the middle of his church.
So that’s why it’s called Seven, because I wanted to say that on the air.
12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,[d] dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. Revelation 1:12-13 — The New International Version (NIV)
Nick:
Wow! You’re expecting like, “oh, well this is my seventh recording” or something. No, there’s such depth there. That’s amazing.
Brooke and her husband writing the album together
Sandi:
I love the intentionality behind that. You and your husband wrote every song on this project, if I understand it right.
Brooke Ligertwood:
Not every song. So I wrote every song, but Scott wrote about four of them. And Scott’s amazing with all the visual side of things. So we always say kind of, often, I hear and he sees. So everything you see that’s visual, Scott has had his hand on it. He’s really gifted and anointed in that area. So it’s been really fun for us to, for the first time, as a married couple, get to completely work on something together. So it’s been a real family affair. And our daughters have been along for the whole journey as well, so it’s been really sweet. Yeah.
Sandi:
So, Honey in the Rock. I don’t think I’ve ever played a song with anything like that title. From scripture though, right?
Brooke Ligertwood:
It’s a bit fun, isn’t it? It’s from scripture. Yeah, Psalm 81.
I would feed you with honey from the rock. So, honey from the rock is sweetness in the wilderness. There’s so much here scripturally, so we don’t have time to talk about it. But it’s Psalm 81…
But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” Psalm 81:16 — The New International Version (NIV)
A little nod to Exodus 17…
3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” 4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. Exodus 17: 3-5 — The New International Version (NIV)
A little nod to 1 Corinthians 10.
3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:3-4 — The New International Version (NIV)
If you know me, you know that I love the Bible.
And so I don’t just make things up. Honey in the rocks is a biblical concept, and that whole idea that for those of us who trust in Jesus, there is sweetness in the wilderness. Not just sustenance, but even sweetness, yeah.
