[Intro: Zae da Blacksmith]
Yo, yeah
The hand of God, man, all up in my life, man
Switching and rearranging, feel me?

[Verse 1: Zae da Blacksmith]
I been a gun-packing stickup kid
Talking 'bout "son, where your funds," "take his kicks" and did
I was the villain but the pendulum switched
I been forgiven, now I live by what's revealed in the scripts
And that's the hand of God
Was busy tryna bag broads
In them cyphers bragging hard, now I brag about my God
And that's His hands all up in the mixture
I was such a grimy, low-down, dirty trickster
I had my dream job, yeah, but I got fired
I was that dude in my line of work that nobody could hire
Let's just say I made mistakes, they call 'em problems
But hey, I'm living great, now I'm in Philly fighting fires
Look at God, yeah, my situation's blazing
Truth, but it's an understatement, like "God's amazing"
They say my life is changed, I feel the same, but it's His hands, though
It just remains of stains from that Last Blood, like Rambo
Ayo, I remember that night in Amsterdam
When we ran up in that club to grab the mic, put out a plan
It was open mic but S.O. started building with the owner, though
Ended up as headliners, we was [bogin' for the Lord?]
Yo, that was so dope though, wasn't it
Kind of like the first Collective album, we was crushing it
And there's no doubt about it, brothers, that was God's hand too
And if the Lord is still about it, then I'm down for part two
What y'all say man?
[Break: Stephen the Levite]
Man, you know what it is
You know, it's crazy, though
Thinking about the Collective
You know, how much has changed since that first trip to Europe
You know, it's been a lot of ups and downs
Like, I need to catch y'all up, actually
Lemme tell you about it real quick

[Verse 2: Stephen the Levite]
It feels as if I, my wife, and my children spent
The last two years in the wilderness
The guilt that sent me out had me doubting His will's in this
So focused on my filthiness, it's hard to rejoice when the Lord was killing it
The devil was messing with my perspective
When He provides through the saints, I see another form of debt
Then I'm grateful but feel the weight too, won't give the praise due
Busy chasing a breakthrough, but not by His grace, truly it was hazy
But now looking back it is crazy, with 20/20 from 2020 I see it's amazing
How His hand moves, forget the plans, fool, He's got it handled
God gifted a free whip, not the kind of thing someone hands you
Now we're down in Atlanta, that wasn't part of my plan but
We put it all in His hands so it's kinda the Promised Land to us
Others call it Wakanda, the population is tanner
There's opportunities knocking, we got a lot of our fam
In the towns surrounding, we found a community it would seem no more bouncing around for now, kids in school and doing their thing
Though the roller coaster ain't over, Jehovah showing His steez
And His Holy Ghost is exposing my soul and all of my weaknesses
Breathe easy, these fees be sea-deep but
He keeps the feet beneath me, ski'd up
I don't sink or swim, I seem to skim the surface
If you peep the trends, you'll see it's Him who's working
[Break: Timothy Brindle]
Okay, Stephen the Levite
Man, you and Zae killing it for the Lord
All right, y'all brought me in on this one
And you know what? Zae
Can I unpack the hand of God theme in the Scriptures, brah?
You know that's my joint, the hand of God
Unfolding from Genesis through Exodus all the way to the New Testament
Let's get in it

[Verse 3: Timothy Brindle]
Twenty years ago, disgustingly lifeless
Walking dead, I bobbed my head to rugged beats like this
I wasn't banging [seed?] with the red or blue gang
But blazing trees and praising me over beats by Wu-Tang
Rugged with my Tims, crazy with a tight flow
But my love of wickedness was making me a psycho
So the hand of God came and saved me from my idols
But now we gotta open up the pages of the Bible
To see the hand of God in redemptive history
On behalf of Israel, giving them the victory
Or His heavy hands afflicting enemies with misery
Genesis 49, the first place in the Scriptures, see
The word "hand" from the phrase "hand of God"
Refers to His power, yo, the Hebrew word is יָד (yad)
Many times in Exodus in the Hebrew we see it
By His strong hand He saves His people from Egypt
Much wordplay with "hand," we notice
Yahweh's hand saves from Pharaoh's hand by the hand of Moses
This sets the pattern for redemption in the rest of scripts
By His mighty hand, God'll work a second Exodus
Book of Esther, there's no mention of the hand of God
But you know it's at work, blending in like camouflage
The Lord's good hand in Ezra, Nehemiah
Restored them from the exile, prepping for Messiah
Now the hand of God's the hand of a carpenter
Psalm 15, clean hands and His heart is pure
By the hands of lawless men impaled just for me
See each hand of God nailed to the tree
For all my sins to save me from His hammer rod
Resurrected and ascended to the right hand of God
With hands raised while beholding the Lamb
Forever I'mma look upon the holes in His hands, yeah