What Does it Mean to Follow Hard
Passion – One Pure and Holy Passion
Give me one pure and holy passion
Give me on magnificent obsession
Give me one glorious ambition for my life
To know and follow hard after You
My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me. – Psalm 63:8 KJV
My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. – Psalm 63:8 (ESV)
ESV Study Note:
Ps. 63:8 clings. Or “holds fast” (Hb. dabaq); cf. Deut. 4:4; 10:20; 11:22; 30:20; 1 Cor. 6:16–17 (see ESV footnote).
1 Cor. 6:16 Or do you not know that he who is joined [1] to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.”
ESV footnote:
[1] 6:16 Or who holds fast (compare Genesis 2:24 and Deuteronomy 10:20); also verse 17
Gen 2:24
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Other cross references for Follow Hard:
Likewise, when all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too followed hard after them in the battle. – 1 Sam. 14:22 (ESV)
And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and upon his sons; and the Philistines slew Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Melchishua, Saul’s sons. – 1 Samuel 31:2 KJV
Two thoughts on the phrase Follow Hard from all these verses. The song probably references the Ps 63:8 KJV which carries the idea of becoming one, holding fast. Intimate knowledge and oneness of a husband and wife is how we should be united with Christ, our union with Christ. The second talks about the pursuit. It’s the pursuit of death, to chase after someone with such vigor and crazy. We chase after God with the pursuit of death, our own death.
DISCLAIMER: I probably did this word study completely wrong since I don’t really know how to do one. You should study the scriptures on your own and not simply take other people’s word for it.