Favorite Songs - Holding Back the Storm, by Paul Rodgers

(Are there some songs that never get old for you? You can listen to them over and over again, even after you've just listened to them, and you still enjoy them? When they also make you think about interesting and important stuff, you get the kinds of songs I'm talking about in this series of blog posts.)

While my wife Jill was away for a couple days helping a family in need, this song came on in my rotation and was already on my list to do a blog entry on it, so since I was missing Jill and thinking about her, I figured this was the time to do it.

This is my favorite of a number of songs on this album by Paul Rodgers that I love, because I think he has one of the best voices ever and on this more mature solo album (compared to his Free and Bad Company days), he actually uses it to sing about some important and meaningful issues (rather than "All Right Now," "Feel Like Making Love," "Ready for Love," and their ilk, which are great vocal performances but not very meaningful:). 

"Holding Back the Storm" is actually an ode to a godly woman, a Proverbs 31 woman even, which of course is what my wife is. The song says she flies "on the wings of a white dove," which can only be a reference to the Holy Spirit, and other lyrics in it echo these verses from Proverbs 31:

Who can find a virtuous wife?
For her worth is far above rubies.
The heart of her husband safely trusts her;
So he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good and not evil

All the days of her life....
She girds herself with strength,
And strengthens her arms....
She extends her hand to the poor,
Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy....
Strength and honor are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come.... [The song says "Fly on the wings of tomorrow"]
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
And on her tongue is the law of kindness.
She watches over the ways of her household....
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
Her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many daughters have done well,
But you excel them all.”
Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,

But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands,

And let her own works praise her in the gates.

About the music in the song... As I've said before, powerful rock music can be very appropriate for various emotions that God wants us to feel, such as anger against injustice and other consequences of sin. In the case of this song, I find it very fitting for the celebration of one of God's greatest gifts to the world--a godly woman whose "worth is far above rubies." 

I posted my own song and video tribute to my wife Jill (and "the fruit of her hands") elsewhere on this blog, but here are the lyrics that are sung by a much, much better voice than mine:

Holding Back the Storm

She has the heart of a lion
The soul of a mountain stream
That flows through the heart of the valley of love
Pure as an baby's dream

She has the eyes of a tiger 
Watching her children grow
The power and grace of the love on her face
Sharing the secret she knows 

Hold back the storm
With a love so warm
Holding back the storm
With a love so strong
Holding back the storm

Fly, with the power of love
Fly, on the wings of a white dove 
Fly, away with my sorrow
Fly on the wings of, the wings of tomorrow

Holding back the storm

She has a way of believing
When nobody else gives a damn
She has a way of seeing the truth
Touching the soul of a man

Hold back the storm
With a love so warm
Holding back the storm
With a love so strong
Hold back the storm

My message to you baby, is that I love you, and you hold back the storm...