Lift Your Head Weary Sinner (Chains)

This was released as the third single from Neon Steeple, David Crowder's debut solo album. He explained the song's meaning to NewReleaseToday: "One of the main narratives and the arc of the Gospel, even back to the Israelites, was the exit from Paradise and a longing to return to a relationship between the created and their Creator. Our stories are all of being exiled and longing to return home. It feels like one of the main themes running through Scripture is home, the ultimate home being union with the Divine. This song is right in the middle of that theme that has been woven throughout Scripture and my album. This song is a turning point. The word 'if' in the song lyrics 'if you're lost and wandering' represents how the idea of sin, which necessitates this distance between us and God, is inherent in each of us. The idea of atonement is that we as Christians have placed our faith and hope in Jesus and His blood sacrifice on behalf of our sins. We are raised to a new life and a new reconciled existence between our Creator God and us. We get the story of the Temple veil being torn in two and the blood of Christ allowing our access to God. When you get to that word 'if' in the chorus, it's all inclusive. Everybody can answer 'yes, I'm lost and wandering.' The Hebrew tradition is that repentance came even before sin came, and represents an actual action in addition to a character flaw. We will do harm to someone. It's not just an ethereal idea. With our hands and our actions, we will do wrong to one another. There's got to be a way to come back into right standing with God. Repentance remedies the divide. The idea of being 'chained' to our sins is that now we are free when we are saved and walk in newness of life. We are now looking forward, because the blood of Jesus is enough and has atoned for whatever you've done. That theme is all through the album, and this song points us looking forward to home."

When performing this song live, David Crowder likes to do something a little bit different. He explained: "We have our wonderful violinist and cellist bang chains on the top of a washtub for one of the percussive elements when we start this song. It looks cool, and definitely sounds great because that's one of the sounds we used to record this song. I think it's funny because it's literal, because "chains" is in the song. Once you get to the bridge section, it ties the song together."