Stand Still

Deitrick Haddon opens with a command borrowed almost word for word from scripture rather than composed fresh: "stand still and know that He is God, and there's no need to fight, the battle is not yours, the battle is the Lord's." The chorus does the theological work up front, before the verses even describe what's actually wrong.

The first verse names real fear without minimizing it — "it takes all your strength to hold back your tears, but you know you gotta face your fears" — and answers it with a whisper rather than a shout, something quieter than the trouble itself.

The second verse turns the standoff around entirely: "don't you think by know they would have figured out the Lord will always see you through... so stand back and move out of His way." Moses told a terrified, trapped Israel almost the identical thing at the edge of the Red Sea — the Lord will fight for you, you need only be still — and David's declaration before Goliath that "the battle is the Lord's" gives the chorus its exact language. Standing still, in this song, isn't passivity; it's getting out of the way of something already moving.