Hymn Monday: Jesus, I Am Resting, Resting

The first time I remember hearing/singing this old hymn was on a Wednesday night with friends at Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN. My friend, Cindy, had invited me and our friend, Robin, and our kids to come to her church for a mid-week service. I remember that we sang this hymn and it was so beautiful and peaceful.


Sometime later, after our family started attending Grace Community Church, it was sung in a worship service and has become a favorite of mine. This past weekend, it was used during the worship time at the Spring Women's Gathering (Topic:  "Be Still" from Exodus 14) and then was also a part of our Sunday morning worship. I love getting to sing a favorite song in corporate worship two times in one weekend!


I am in a season of life when I need to be purposefully resting. Not just physically, although that is important, but I need to rest my mind and rest my spirit and rest in Jesus.


Jesus I Am Resting, Resting

Jesus, I am resting, resting, in the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart.
Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee, and Thy beauty fills my soul,
For by Thy transforming power, Thou hast made me whole.

Refrain:
Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness of Thy loving heart.

O, how great Thy lovingkindness, vaster, broader than the sea!
O! how marvelous Thy goodness lavished all on me!
Yes, I rest in Thee, Beloved, know what wealth of grace is Thine,
Know Thy certainty of promise and have made it mine. (refrain)

Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus, I behold Thee as Thou art,
And Thy love, so pure, so changeless, satisfies my heart.
Satisfies its deepest longings, meets, supplies its every need,
Compasseth me round with blessings: Thine is love indeed! (refrain)

Ever lift Thy face upon me as I work and wait for Thee;
Resting ‘neath Thy smile, Lord Jesus, earth’s dark shadows flee.
Brightness of my Father’s glory, sunshine of my Father’s face,
Keep me ever trusting, resting, fill me with Thy grace. (refrain)




I hope that the words of this hymn will ring true in my heart, mind and soul and in yours as well.

Hymn Sunday: It Is Well With My Soul

This well-known hymn has a lot of meaning for our family. It has been sung at funerals on my father's side of the family (parents, two brothers and his own). In college, a friend of mine always choked up singing it at church and it became a favorite for me during that time as well. 

The story of how Horatio Spafford came to write the hymn is also well-known. It was writ­ten af­ter two ma­jor trau­mas in Spaf­ford’s life. The first was the great Chi­ca­go Fire of Oc­to­ber 1871, which ru­ined him fi­nan­cial­ly (he had been a weal­thy bus­i­ness­man). Short­ly af­ter, while cross­ing the At­lan­tic, all four of Spaf­ford’s daugh­ters died in a col­li­sion with an­o­ther ship. Spaf­ford’s wife Anna sur­vived and sent him the now fa­mous tel­e­gram, “Saved alone.” Sev­er­al weeks lat­er, as Spaf­ford’s own ship passed near the spot where his daugh­ters died, the Ho­ly Spir­it in­spired these words. They speak to the eter­nal hope that all be­liev­ers have, no mat­ter what pain and grief be­fall them on earth. The tune, written by Philip P. Bliss, is named af­ter the ship on which Spaf­ford’s child­ren per­ished, the S.S. Ville de Havre. Iron­ic­al­ly, Bliss him­self died in a tra­gic train wreck short­ly af­ter writ­ing this mu­sic. (taken from cyberhymnal.org).

One of the things I have always liked about this hymn is when it is sung in four-part harmony, and the lines of the refrain are echoed. Funny thing is that as a soprano, I'm never really sure if I'm supposed to sing with the lead or with the echo.

Besides singing the first verse and refrain at the end of my dad's service, my other most-recent memory of singing this hymn was in December at the Ryman Auditorium during Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God" concert. The entire congregation sang together, a capella, and instead of making me sad at the memory of my dad, it was encouraging to lift my voice with the hundred of other voices and know that it truly is "well with my soul."

 

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

 

Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

The Love of God

After listening to Ebenezer: The Lord Has Brought Me This Far by Dave Hunt, as well as some other CDs recently, I am inspired to try to share a hymn with you on a weekly basis. I think it will be on Sundays, but since this is "Love Week" (in case you haven't checked the calendar, tomorrow is Valentine's Day), I wanted to post this one today. It's about a greater love than any human can give another. And when I hear/read the last stanza and let the word picture form in my mind, it totally blows me away. Every time.

The Love of God

The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win.
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin.

When years of time shall pass away
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here, refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure shall still endure,
All measureless and strong.
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race –
The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill
And ev’ry man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.

O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure –
The saints’ and angels’ song.

Words: Fred­er­ick M. Leh­man; he wrote this song in 1917 in Pas­a­de­na, Cal­i­fornia, and it was pub­lished in Songs That Are Dif­fer­ent, Vol­ume 2, 1919. The lyr­ics are based on the Jew­ish poem Had­da­mut, writ­ten in Ara­ma­ic in 1050 by Meir Ben Isaac Ne­hor­ai, a can­tor in Worms, Ger­ma­ny; they have been trans­lat­ed in­to at least 18 lang­uages.

One day, dur­ing short in­ter­vals of in­at­ten­tion to our work, we picked up a scrap of pa­per and, seat­ed up­on an emp­ty le­mon box pushed against the wall, with a stub pen­cil, add­ed the (first) two stan­zas and chor­us of the song…Since the lines (3rd stan­za from the Jew­ish po­em) had been found pen­ciled on the wall of a pa­tient’s room in an in­sane asy­lum af­ter he had been car­ried to his grave, the gen­er­al opin­ion was that this in­mate had writ­ten the epic in mo­ments of san­ity.
Frederick M. Lehman, “History of the Song, The Love of God,” 1948

Music: Fred­er­ick Leh­man; ar­ranged by his daugh­ter, Clau­dia L. Mays (MI­DI, score).