Melody Green

Most would assume it’s an old hymn after hearing a choir rendition of “There is a Redeemer,” but they would be mistaken. It's a worship song written in 1977 by Melody Green, a relatively new christian and made famous by her late-husband, musician Keith Green.

Melody and Keith were born Jewish and from an early age, they went through all kinds of drugs and spiritual stuff seeking enlightenment for themselves. This included Christian Science for Keith and Buddhism for Melody along with a heavy dose of New Age for each.

Even though Keith was born in New York and Melody in southern California, they met in 1972 and within a year were married to each other. Then in 1975 they were invited to a small bible study in upscale Bel Air. There they found what they had been looking for — their one and only true Messiah, Jesus Christ. After this experience she and Keith began opening the doors of their small home to take in kids with drug problems and surprise pregnancies, often leading them to the Lord. Going door to door to invite people, they also had Pot Luck dinners and bible studies for their whole neighborhood.

This ministry grew and became what is still known today as Last Days Ministry (LDM). Keith’s musical career was at the top of the charts and new facilities were built and more were in the planning stages when tragedy struck their family.

Keith and two of their young children, with some visiting friends, went for a short ride in a small plane. Just 20 seconds after takeoff, the plane crashed in a neighboring field and burst into flames with no survivors.

Keith was only 28 years old when he died. Melody's first born, Josiah, was almost four and Bethany was two years old. At the time, Melody was at home with their one year old daughter Rebekah Joy and six weeks pregnant with their fourth child. Melody said, “The rug was yanked out from under my whole world that day.”

Today with a hard-won wisdom from decades of what she calls “real life,” Melody has faced several personal tragedies and losses, but has to date, emerged from each with a greater gratitude to God and more comfort to share with others. In her own words, “Today I have more faith in God’s goodness and ability to provide than ever before. Even when terrible things happen He can turn those things towards our good… but only if we have the patience to wait while we are hurting.”

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Sources: Last Days Ministry + Wikipedia + Constantin Meunier

Burnin’

I think sometimes we all hear songs that touch us in some profound way. Burnin’ is one of those for me. It’s Nichole Nordeman’s brilliant song off her 2013 “Wide Eyed” album. On it she sings about her encounter with the refining fire of God. A fire that for Nordeman is very real, raw and personal.

Lyrics:

Started rubbing sticks together
I thought a spark would take forever
I never dreamt this fire would appear

When Moses saw the Bush in flames
And heard the branches speak his name
I wonder if he felt this kind of fear

CHORUS:
‘Cause I’m burnin’
Yeah, I’m burnin’
And I know I’m gonna blister in these flames
So I’ll stay here
‘Till this smoke clears
And I’ll find you in the ashes that remain

Used to be that I could say
My faith was one arm's length away
From any flame that ever felt too warm

Asked for matches, but I received
A gallon full of gasoline
Now my cozy campfire days are gone

CHORUS

‘Knock with caution at the door’ 
They said, ‘Beware of what you're praying for’

So I’ll stand here with my whole desire
In the middle of this forest fire
‘Till I’ve nothing left to show
And new life begins to grow...

CHORUS

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Sources: Quorn + Kimberly D - She Considers A Field

Martin Luther

This famous ecumenical hymn was written in 1529, by Martin Luther. He was a German professor of theology, composer, priest and monk who became the seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation. Luther thought the singing of hymns to be significant in motivating the believer and fully believed the Bible was God speaking to man and hymns were man speaking to God. 

About this hymn in particular, Luther himself said, "We sing this psalm to the praise of God, because God is with us and powerfully and miraculously preserves and defends his church and his word against all fanatical spirits, against the gates of hell, against the implacable hatred of the devil, and against all the assaults of the world, the flesh and sin.”

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Sources: Hymn Sing + YouTube

Country Donegal

“Be Thou My Vision” was thought to written in the seventh century by an Irish church poet and missionary named Columba of Country Donegal. This hymn has remained one of my favorites, since first listening to Van Morrison’s rendition on “Hymns to the Silence.” 

Van’s modified lyrics:

Be Thou my vision, oh Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thy art
Thou my best thought, in the day and the night
Waking or sleeping, Thou presence my light.

Be Thou my wisdom, Be Thou my true word
I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord
Thou my great Father and I Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my breast-plate, my sword for the fight
Be Thou my armor and be Thou my might
Thou my soul’s shelter, and Thy my high tower
Raise Thou me heavenwards, oh power of my power.

Riches I need not, nor man’s empty praise
Thou mine inheritance through all of my days
Thou and Thou only, the first in my heart
High King of Heaven, my treasure Thou art.

Oh high King of Heaven, when battle is done,
Grant Heaven’s joy to me, bright Heaven’s sun
Christ of my own heart, whatever befall
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.

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Townend on collaboration

“In Christ Alone” was the very first collaboration between Stuart Townend and Keith Getty. Written in 2002, with a haunting Irish melody by Getty and original lyrics by Townend, this contemporary hymn has become one of the most enduring of its generation.

Townend explains, “Keith Getty and I were at a conference together and a mutual friend said we should get together. He’d said how great Keith was at writing melodies and he probably said some nice things about how I write lyrics, and so we met for a coffee. Nothing particularly eventful happened but Keith said he’d send me a CD with some of his song ideas.

When it arrived I wasn’t expecting anything much from it. But as soon as I heard the first song – which was just him on the piano, playing the melody in the right hand – I thought there was something about it, something quite profound.

It was a classic melody, with that eternal, enduring aspect. I was getting to like it more and more and wondering what the song could be about. I phoned Keith and subsequently thought ‘this is a song about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and what that means for us.’

When I started to write the lyrics it got more and more exciting, and I got more and more emotional. I began to try and put into words what it means for Christ to have gone through what he went through, what that means for me and how that completely changes my life.

I sent the lyrics to Keith and he liked them and he suggested changing the first line. I’d started with the words My hope is found in Christ alone, but he thought it would be great if the song began with the phrase In Christ alone. I was slightly against it because I had this rhyme scheme going in the verse and didn’t want to mess it up. I was slightly irritated, but the more I thought about it the more I thought ‘yes that would probably be stronger’, so I moved it around.

I actually think it was a stroke of genius because now the song is known as In Christ Alone, it’s where the song begins, it’s the statement you make and it’s the first thing you sing. So I think that it made the song so much stronger as a result.

The song started slowly in terms of my writing. Sometimes you’re just trying to find your way with the first verse, trying to find the key theme. The second verse was about His life and going to the cross, but I think that by the third verse I was thinking about the moment of resurrection. The melody was so powerful, so suggestive of that, and it was at that point I began to be really caught up in the song. It kind of meant that the fourth verse just spilled out, with me saying ‘wow, this is what the cross and resurrection means: to change is everything.’

That’s the power of the song – it points to what Christ went though. We get to stand before Him not because of our great faith or because doing well as a Christian, but purely and simply because of what He has done.”

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Sources: We Are Worship + Pixabay

Stuart Townend

One of my favorite contemporary versions of this Psalter comes from the gifted Stuart Townend.

Townend is a gifted worship leader, musician and recording artist who has been on numerous albumns. But it’s as songwriter that he makes his greatest impact on contemporary worship. In addition to “The Lord’s My Shepherd,” other songs by him include “The Power of The Cross,” “In Christ Alone,” and “O Church Arise” to name just a few. 

“It is so important that our lives are built not on our feelings or circumstances, but on the word of God, and songs can really help us to meditate on and retain truth,” says Townend. “ …if you can express in songs the profound truth of the gospel in a poetic yet accessible way, they really can have an impact in people’s lives.”

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Source: Integrity Music

Thomas Chisholm

In 1925, Thomas Chisholm wrote “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” as a testament to God’s faithfulness through his ordinary life and sometimes described himself as “just an old shoe.” Chisholm was born in a Kentucky log cabin in 1866. He began his career as a school teacher at the age of sixteen, he became a pastor at thirty-six, but had to retire due to poor health. Chisholm spent the majority of the rest of his life as a life insurance agent in New Jersey. During his life he wrote over 1200 poems, most of which no one will ever hear. 

Chisholm gave this testimony toward the end of his life, “My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness.”

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Sources: Gaither.com + Mangrove Safari-Sunset

Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley wrote over six thousand hymns, but this may have been his best. “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” first appeared in 1739 within the Wesley collection of Hymns and Sacred Poems. In this Christmas carol, we not only join of the shepherds under a canopy of singing angels, we also learn about the child they proclaimed. We discover who He is and what His coming will bring.

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Sources: The Complete Book of Hymns + Gertrude Käsebier

Henry van Dyke

“The Hymn of Joy” (often called “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee”) is a poem written by Henry van Dyke in 1907 with the intention of musically setting it to the famous “Ode to Joy” melody of the final movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. Van Dyke’s lyrics were first published in 1911 in his Book of Poems, Third Edition.

About this hymn Van Dyke himself wrote: These verses are simple expressions of common Christian feelings and desires in this present time — hymns of today that may be sung together by people who know the thought of the age, and are not afraid that any truth of science will destroy religion, or any revolution on earth overthrow the kingdom of heaven. It is a hymn of trust and joy and hope.

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Source: Wikipedia

Joseph M. Scriven

Joseph M. Scriven was a man familiar with personal tragedy. While in Ireland, his fiancée accidentally drowned on the eve of the wedding. Soon after, he decided to move to Canada. It was there, his second fiancée also died suddenly from an illness shortly before the wedding. With no job in a hard economy, he had to live with friends and acquaintances. In Canada, he was determined to be a friend to those in need, and he became known as the “Good Samaritan of Port Hope.”

Scriven wrote the words for “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” to accompany a letter to his mother in Ireland when she became ill. Later, when Scriven himself became ill, a visiting friend noticed the hymn scribbled on a scratch paper hear his bed. His friend asked, “Did you write this?” “Well, not completely,” Scriven answered, “The Lord and I did it between us.”

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Source: The Complete Book of Hymns

Isaac Watts

Queen Anne of England lay dying in 1714, and had no son or daughter to succeed her. It was during this time that Isaac Watts had reason to worry. At odds with the Church of England, Watts’ father had been imprisoned under the previous ruler because of his congregationalist belief. Queen Anne had freed Watts’ father from prision under a new tolerance for religious dissent.  

In the writing of “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” Isaac Watts turned to Psalm 90 for inspiration. Here God stands above time, and in Him all our anxieties can be laid to rest. When events of the day bring worry and concern, the God of ages remains our eternal refuge. 

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Sources: Getty Open Content + The Complete Book of Hymns

Louisa Stead

On a beautiful sunny day in 1882, Louisa Stead, along with her husband and daughter, decided to have a picnic on Long Island Sound. While enjoying their picnic, they heard the cry of a young boy calling for help. Mr. Stead quickly ran to the boy’s aid, but was unable to save the young boy and both he and the boy drowned while Louisa and Lily watched hopelessly from the shore. 

When Louisa and Lily were left destitute with no food or way to adequately support themselves, someone would feel led to place a basket of food outside their door. Louisa saw this as the grace of God that provided for her and her daughter in their time of need. After such an occasion, Louisa wrote the words to a poem that later became the hymn, “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus.”

In the years to come, both Louisa and Lily would serve as missionaries in South Africa. 

The Refrain
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!

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Sources: LadyFiddler + GalleryHD

Dan Schutte

Here I Am, Lord, also known as “I, the lord of sea and sky,” is the well known Christian hymn written by American composer Dan Schutte in 1981. The words are based on Isaiah 6:8 and 1 Samuel 3. Published by OCP Publications, it has become one of the most well known Catholic hymns in use today. 

Despite its Catholic origins, Schutte’s hymn is also sung in many Protestant worship services and is found in most Christian hymnals being translated into over 20 languages. 

Partial Lyrics
I the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard My people cry.
All who dwell in dark and sin My hand will save.
I who made the stars of night, I will make their darkness bright.
Who will bear my light to them? Whom shall I send?

Here I am Lord. Is it I Lord?
I have heard You calling in the night.
I will go Lord, if You lead me.
I will hold Your people in my Heart.

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Source: Wikipedia

Fanny Crosby

Considered by many to be the greatest hymn writer of all time, Frances Jane “Fanny” Crosby wrote over 7000 hymns. People found this astonishing because she was blind.

Fanny wrote “To God Be The Glory” about 1872, and included it in a collection of hymns entitled Brightest and Best. However, while many of the hymns in that collection became quite famous, this one didn't catch on — at least, not in America. 

Then in 1954, Billy Graham went to England for his London Crusade.  Someone gave a copy of the song to Cliff Barrows, Graham's song leader, and suggested including it in the songbook that was being compiled for the crusade.  Barrows had heard the song on an earlier visit to England, and was impressed with its strong note of praise — so he included it in the songbook and used it in the crusade. 

However, it was not until the Billy Graham Crusade in Nashville that Cliff Barrows introduced this song to congregations in the United States. Because of Graham and Barrows influence, compilers soon began including it in hymnals. 

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Source: Lectionary

John Wesley Work & Frederick J. Work

This folk spiritual was first published in New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1901 by John Wesley Work II and his brother, Frederick J. Work. 

The song relates to both the Old and New Testaments. The verses reflect the Israelites’ escape out of Egypt as found in Exodus:14. The chorus refers to healing: see John 5:4, “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.” 

Many online sources and popular books maintain that songs such as “Wade in the Water” contained explicit instructions to fugitive slaves on how to avoid capture and the route to take to successfully make their way to freedom. 

An example of this is cited in the Pathways to Freedom: Maryland & the Underground Railroad. This website explains how Harriet Tubman used the song “Wade in the Water” to tell escaping slaves to get off the trail and into the water to make sure that the dogs employed by slavers lost their trail. 

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Source: Wikipedia

Pepper Choplin

“This Is My Word,” is another wonderful choral arrangement composed by Pepper Choplin. Quoting Choplin, his chief desire as a composer is "to create music that will lead people to worship in a dramatic way.” 

Much of Choplin’s creative energy goes into planning worship services for Greystone Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC where he is the Minister of Music. Many of his anthems were born out of a need at his own church. Currently, Choplin has over two hundred anthems in addition to six choral musicals. 

Partial Lyrics
As the snow falls from heaven, 
As it comes in swirling showers from the sky, 
So is my Word. 
As the rains bring the water to the earth that is thirsty and dry, 
So is my Word. 
And the Word of my mouth, it shall not return empty: 
It will bless the earth wherever it is heard. 
This is my Word. 

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Source: Amazon

Author Unknown

Like Psalm 16:8, this song points out that we shall not be moved if we keep the Lord on our right hand. The original text and tune are both anonymous. “I Shall Not Be Moved” is considered a traditional American folk song whose lyrics most likely stretch back to the slave era, although there is no indication of when the song was written or who wrote it. 

Typical of spiritual folk songs, “I Shall Not Be Moved” consists of a series of stanzas where only a single line changed for each verse. 

Partial Lyrics
I shall not, I shall not be moved
I shall not, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's planted by the water
I shall not be moved

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Source: austinbhebe

Reginald Heber

Reginald Heber’s widow found the words ”Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,” among her dead husband's papers. These words would became what poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson called the world’s greatest hymn. Still, several years would pass before these words took their place in worship services around the world.

Then in 1861, a publisher rediscovered the words. This publisher asked John Bacchus Dykes to furnish him with a tune. John was a very talented composer and had been a church organist since he was ten-years-old. John was also the co-founder and president of the Cambridge University Musical Society. 

John took the words and within thirty minutes wrote the tune "Nicea," which carried the praise of the Trinity to Christians everywhere.

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee; 
Holy, Holy, Holy, Merciful and Mighty! 
God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity!

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Source: Christianity.com

Tim Timmons, Tony Wood & Harriet Beecher Stowe

“Deep Water“ is a truly beautiful contemporary choral arrangement published in 2012. The words and music are by Tim Timmons, Tony Wood and Harriet Beecher Stowe with the arrangement and orchestration by Phillip Keveren.

Partial Lyrics:
When winds are raging o’er the troubled ocean, 
And billows wild contend with angry roar, 
'Tis said far down beneath the wild commotion
Peace still reigneth ever more

Chorus:
For every soul that knows deep water, 
Though rain and waves may never cease, 
For very soul that knows deep water, 
Where Christ dwells there is peace. 

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Sources: Chamber Music – YouTube

Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley, who along with his brother John started the Methodist movement, wanted to encourage his followers in the face of early persecution and hardship. He wanted them to be a singing, joyful people and not get discouraged and lose hope. Paul’s letter to the Philippians gave Wesley the text for “Rejoice, the Lord Is King.” Although Paul was imprisoned when he wrote this letter, he wrote a message of joy and encouragement, stating “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4).

This hymn was first published (1744) in John Wesley’s Moral and Sacred Poems. Two years later Charles Wesley included it in Hymns for Our Lord’s Resurrection. Most hymnals include four stanzas, omitting the fourth and fifth stanzas of the original hymn. 

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Source: Center for Church Music