A Song

I am a music person. I love music, all types of music. It can improve my mood, motivate me, pass the time, convict, or comfort. I said to someone the other day that music speaks to my soul. I felt silly as soon as I said it, but it is true. A song can speak to me in ways that the words all by themselves cannot. That being said, it is not uncommon for me to get stuck on a song. If the words are excellent, and I feel like I need it to get into my heart, I'll listen to it so loudly and so many times that it drives Van nuts. I often find myself taking the long way home in order to listen to the song just one more time.

Last week, a precious friend delivered a cd that I haven't been able to stop listening to. It is called Wake Thy Slumbering Children by Indelible Grace. The one song that I switch it to every time I have a second is Abide with Me, which is apparently a hymn that I had never heard until now. I don't know if it is because I grew up on the KJV and Baptist Hymnal, but there is something so powerful about some of the good old hymns.

It was written by Henry Francis Lyte in 1847. The version that I have been listening to is recorded by Matthew Perryman Jones.

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;

The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.

When other helpers fail and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Thou on my head in early youth didst smile;

And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,

Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee,

On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour.

What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?

Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?

Through cloud and sunshine, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;

Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.

Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?

I triumph still, abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;

Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.

Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;

In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.