Greg Long, Mercy Said No | Music Lifts 🎶 🏋

In the 37th edition of Music Lifts (2024), we’re uplifted by Contemporary Christian musician Greg Long performing, “Mercy Said No.”

Welcome to Music Lifts 🎶 🏋, a column highlighting songs that encourage, inspire, and uplift the spirit; songs exuding fortitude, positivity, and resolve, even in the face of adversity.  Featured songs aren’t genre-specific; songs may or may not be faith-based. The goal is for these songs to make you feel better – be LIFTED to new heights!  So, for the 37^th edition of Music Lifts 🎶 🏋 (2024), we highlight “Mercy Said No” as performed by Greg Long.

“I was just a child when I felt the Savior leading / I was drawn to what I could not understand.” Amen!  Greg Long, alongside Dave Clark and Donald Koch, composed a gorgeous, meaningful, faith-based ballad in 1998.  “Mercy Said No” is the fourth track from the Avalon vocalist’s album, Jesus Saves.  He continues singing the first verse, “I realize His grace is what I’ll need / When sin demanded justice for my soul.” Those are moving, poetic, and reflective lyrics regarding faith.

The verses of “Mercy Said No” feature memorable melodies.  They also feature Biblical and spiritual lyricism. In the second verse, Long quotes John 3:16, singing “For God so loved the world, that He sent His Son to save us / From the cross He built a bridge to set us free.”  He later references  the crucifixion day, where “Evil tried to stop redemption’s flow,” but, we all know that:

“Mercy said, ‘No, I’m not gonna let you go

I’m not gonna let you slip away, you don’t have to be afraid…”

Through most of “Mercy Said Now,” Long serves up beautiful, reverent, and warm lead vocals.  He never oversings, providing just the right oomph initially.  As “Mercy Said No” progresses, he raises the bar – ups the ante.  The chorus is the section to beat – it is incredibly moving. The bridge and the key modulation that follows is one of the most special moments, further increasing the energy, intensity, and spirituality (“And now when Heaven looks at me / It’s through the blood of Jesus / Remind me of one day long ago / Long ago”). All told Greg Long, and his anointed writing team have blessed listeners with the timeless “Mercy Said No”.  CeCe Winans famously covered it on her 2003, gold-certified album, Throne Room.

Greg Long // Jesus Saves // Myrrh / Word Entertainment // 1998

Greg Long, Mercy Said No: Music Lifts 🎶 🏋 No. 37 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Myrrh / Word Entertainment; Monstera Production, Qamar Rehman, RDNE Stock Project, Thomas Ronveaux, Wolrider YURTSEVEN from Pexels; OpenClipart-Vectors, Quốc Hùng Hầu from Pixabay]