Behind The Song: We Need You (No Other God) - Brenton Brown

"We need You" was written by Brenton Brown

We need you, how we need you
We need you every hour
To see You in Your glory
To know Your Spirit’s power
There’s healing in Your presence
There’s mercy where You are
So meet us wont You meet us Living God

No other God but You
No other God but You
No other God can satisfy
You are our great reward
It’s You we’re longing for
No other God but You Most High

Each trial and each temptation
Each enemy we fear
Retreats in resignation
When the living God is near
So we kneel again before You
O keeper of our hearts
And we ask for Your deliverance Living God

We are leaning on Your everlasting arms
Lord we know You’ll see us through
Great Redeemer be the song within our hearts
We’ll have no other God but You

One day we’ll stand before You
When all our sufferings cease
And faced with all Your glory,
We’ll meet the Prince of Peace
But Jesus in that moment,
When every trial has passed
We will need You still we’ll need You Living God

Brenton Brown (c) 2008 Thankyou Music

The song was inspired by the old hymn "I need Thee every hour" by Annie Hawks, published in 1872

Annie Hawks wrote:

"One day as a young wife and mother of 37 years of age, I was busy with my regular household tasks. Suddenly, I became so filled with the sense of nearness to the Master that, wondering how one could live without Him, either in joy or pain, these words, “I Need Thee Every Hour,” were ushered into my mind, the thought at once taking full possession of me".
After writing the lyrics, Hawks gave them to her pastor, Robert Lowry, who added the tune and refrain.

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.

I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.

[Source: Cyberhymnal ]


Brenton took the time out to answer some of my questions about the creation of the song on his blog ...

He also wrote the following concerning the song in a press release for his album

"Quite justifiably I think there has been a backlash in the worship leading community against the 'me focussed, me centered songs'. For a while important elements of our faith seemed missing from the contemporary hymn book - the trinitarian nature of God, the communal aspect of our faith, the fact that worship is a response to who God is. In our desire for intimacy with God we had begun to ignore the very GOD who calls us and draws us to himself. 


But it would be a mistake to assume that simply focussing on the character of God and his activity to the exclusion of us is a true representation of our faith. For our God has revealed himself to us primarily as a Savior. He is our God and we need Him! We need Him simply to breathe and exist. We need him to save us from ourselves and our sins. We need him to lead us through the trials and decisions of this life. And we will need him to carry us home when our time on earth is over. And then, even after He has done all these things for us, after he has met every need, we will still need him simply because that is the way we have been made. 


We will always need Him and who He is. This need is something we should work on cultivating rather than trying to dispense with. Like children we were made to depend on our Father. Those who wish to please God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. We need Him because we were made to need Him - even if we spend a lot of time running from that truth."

The song is on Brenton's album Because Of Your Love (which you can buy from Kingsway for £4:99) 

 'appearing' as a hidden track on the end of Humble King . He doesn't make it easy does he?

Get the free CHORD sheet here 

Related Posts: Behind 'God Is Our Refuge' 

Brenton Brown's amazing free downloads 

Thanks to Nato Etire for help putting together this post.