Tear Down The Walls

Behind The Song

In early summer of 2016, we wrote a simple chant for a liturgy we were leading at Wild Goose Festival, as a prayer for the courage and faith to take down all the walls we put up in our personal lives and in our world. This little chant: “Tear down the walls, tear down the walls between us…” stayed with us and kept growing after the summer was over.  We wrote verses and a bridge, which ended up essentially becoming words of confession…an acknowledgment of our own part in all the wall-building that’s going on these days: “We bring the wood, the iron, the concrete, the fire. We build these walls every day. We carry the hurt, the fears, the shame, and the tears. Our beautiful barricade.”

Albums & Liturgies with this song

The Lyrics

V. 1
The clenched fist, the cordoned off heart
The border lines always keeping us apart

The crossed arms, the closed up ears
The long high fence always keeping us in fear

Chorus
Tear down the walls, tear down the walls
Tear down the walls between us (repeat)

V. 2
Downcast eyes, the hard grip of hate
The words we shout, and the words we do not say

The slow burn, the anger we feed
Scarring souls with the lies that we keep

Chorus

Bridge
We bring the wood, the iron
The concrete, the fire
We build these walls everyday

We carry the hurt, the fear
The pain and the tears
Our beautiful barricade

These walls, we hate them
But these walls we make them

These walls, it’s time to break them

Chorus

Lyrics: Lenora Rand 
Music: Hannah Rand

© 2017 Plural Guild Music