Songs That Make You Young For a Moment
We’re spending seven weeks on Wednesday evenings on a series called “The Church @ Worship.” The first week Randy Harris spoke on “What Makes Worship Good.” Last night we spent an evening singing older songs. (There will be other worship experiences in the series.)
For the last 30 minutes we took requests. You can imagine the ones that came up.
At one point the worship leader, a good buddy, got choked up. It reminded him of learning to sing tenor by sitting next to his mom in church. (She preferred singing tenor over alto.) He remembered singing at a funeral for the first time when he was in 3rd grade. These songs are deep down in his soul.
There are songs that take me back to my earliest years. They take me back to the old church in Neosho . . . or to areawide gospel meetings . . . or to Green Valley Bible Camp. They open my eyes to see the “cloud of witnesses” who nurtured faith in me. “Each Day I’ll Do”; “Trust and Obey”; “Just As I Am”; “He Leadeth Me.”
How about you? What songs take you back across the decades?
“I Must Tell Jesus”, “Home of the Soul”, “Where the Soul Never Dies,” “We Shall See the King Someday,” and “Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross” to name a few — and all from Sacred Selections (with a maroon cover).
Grace and peace,
Rex
When I was a kid (50 now) my dad’s Sunday morning ritual was to polish shoes. You just did not go to church with out your shoes polished. While he did this he always sang religious songs. He was a pretty bad singer, but he absolutly loved to sing, and his favorite song was “Sweet Hour of Prayer,” and he sang it every Sunday morning. Today every time I hear that song I think of my dad and his Sunday morning ritual. In 1998 my dad died and yes, that was one of the songs sung at his funeral. Mike, you are so right about the power of songs to rekindle memories.
“Be Not Afraid” I grew up singing this in the Catholic church. I still sing this one around my house. It’s very comforting.
I recall very vividly growing up in the College Church (now University) in Abilene remembering how incredible the singing was – even as a very small kid. The balcony was usually packed with college students.
Since moving to the hinterlands of East Texas – those days are missed, and very much long gone – sad, but true. Praise music, projecting songs on the screen without notes, decline in numbers of bodies and experienced singers, and musical instruments (I’m for them, so don’t start), has relegated beautiful singing to a thing of the past I’m afraid.
A Wonderful Savior and Trust and Obey
Rock of Ages. My mother loved the song, I didn’t…until years later when I realized the words, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.” Also, On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand. Wow! “We will rest in the fair and happy land, by and by, just across on the evergreen shore. Sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, by and by, and dwell with Jesus evermore. Man, Mike, stop it! My eyes well up with tears as these songs come to mind.
“Old Rugged Cross,” “There Is a Habitation,” and “Blessed Assurance” take me there pretty quickly. O what a foretaste of glory divine.
“Nearer, Still Nearer” and “Night, with Ebon Pinion” come immediately to mind. And “Christ, We Do All Adore Thee,” if the song leader is skillful.
“On Zion’s Glorious Summit,” too.
qb
Yes, “On Zion’s Glorious Summit.” The line “I heard the song and strove to join” is the refrain of every Christian. It does my heart good to remember that I stand at the edge of this ancient group that no man can number, singing well sometimes, at other times hitting a really sour note, in an everlasting chorus.
“Tis the Blessed Hour of Prayer” is a song that I’ve come to appreciate more and more. “And we gather to Jesus, our savior and friend.” What a picture.
O Lord Our Lord with 3,000 folks in the 1980s at the Madison Curch of Christ in Nashville.
Memories of long ago and not so long ago include:
“I Know That My Redeemer Lives”–”I know,I know that my Redeemer lives…”
“Blessed Be the Tie”–”the fellowship of kindred minds is like to heaven above”–more meaningful to me than ever
“Holy, Holy, Holy”
I can hear my mother singing with passion: “There is a Habitation”
And she sang with joy around the house: the chorus to “His Eye Is On the Sparrow”–”I Sing Because I’m Happy”
Home of the Soul, Paradise Valley and O Lord Our Lord are 3 songs I deeply love. However, I have such a vivid picture of those that have passed away that so enjoyed these song, I can hardly sing. Holy, Holy Holy is a wonderful old song in which I can hear the strong alto sung by my aunt.
Holy Holy Holy
…I must say, I was always disappointed growing up that we never sang the Hallelujah Chorus. It took up like 4 pages in “Great Songs of the Church.” Baffling for a an 8-year old.
1. Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
2. Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee;
Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only for my King.
3. Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee;
Take my silver and my gold,
Not a mite would I withhold.
4. Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in endless praise;
Take my intellect and use
Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose.
5. Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine;
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne.
6. Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store;
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.
My dad loved this hymn and when I think of him and his sweet bass baritone, tears and catch in the throat overwhelm me.
In these my later years it has become my theme song, part of my morning prayers …. may my life ever be consecrated to Him!!
728b
Love Lifted Me…..The Great Physician……I Come to the Garden Alone
It’s a fact that the mind remembers things better when they are wrapped in music. How did we learn our ABC’s…..the books of the Bible….the sons of Jacob?
I’ll take the words to these hymns with me to my grave.
DU
We have started singing some of the old hymns (without instruments) about 15 minutes prior to start time over at Freedom Fellowship. It’s amazing to watch our older friends and some of the not so old, connect as the songs reach into their “deep places”.
Salvation Has Been Brought Down (…oh glory)
That brings back memories of Wednesday nights when the young boys got to lead all the songs. My brother liked to lead what he called, “Awesome Wonder”. (How Great Thou Art)
We lower-clef types love the implied props (cf. “Salvation Has Been Brought Down,” “There is a Habitation,” “Home of the Soul,” “Each Day I’ll Do,” “Paradise Valley,” “O Lord Our Lord,” etc.). Y’all are too generous. Something in the non-instrumental Stone-Campbell tradition loves a bass lead!
LOLOLOLOL,
qb
I love everey hymn that has been mentioned. Love “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross”, “Beneath the Cross of Jesus”
On long family car trips we would sing songs when it got dark and I would be laying down in the back set watching the stars and my Dad would start to sing “How Great Thou Art”, To this day I can’t sing that song without remembering being in the back set of that 1969 Ford Galaxy and the peaceful feelings.
“I love to tell the story” and “I need the every hour” are two of the great ones in my book.
“O Sacred Head”….”my I never outlive my love for thee.”
To Canaan’s Land…my very favorite hymm.
“…my sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more…”
That verse brings tears to my eyes every time.
“Walking Alone at Eve”, “How Great Thou Art”, “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks”, “Lord We Come Before Thee Now”, “Here We Are But Straying Pilgrims”…
And then, from my teen years, “My God and I” and “Victory in Jesus”. I think those two songs stand out because our youth group learned them at a time when we understood how the words made us feel right then while we were learning the songs.
Beyone This Land of Parting (Happy Summerland of Bliss).
So many old songs bring back special memories. When I was 5 years old my family drove from Alabama to Canada, then on to Alaska. (Our one and only official family vacation.) On this excursion, my father preached gospel meetings and then gave a minister in Alaska a much needed four week break. Riding along in our Rambler we sang hymns. There are four in our family, so we had all four parts-I sang lead.
These days my precious father is battling lung cancer. As a child every Sunday morning we listened to Handle’s Messiah. You can imagine how much I enjoyed that in my teenage years!! If I heard it this morning, I would weep.
Recently my father and I sat recording the two of us singing some of his favorite old hymns. We laughed and cried a lot that day- ‘Precious memories’, elisabeth
(Mike, some day soon, please ask your friends to list the praise music albums they could not live without.)
Jesus, Thy Name I Love
The Day Thou Gavest
I remember as a child that on certain Sunday nights we would divide into sections (sopranos, altos, tenor, bass)and sing hymns. I would sit with the bass singers. On those old wooden pews it felt wonderful to feel the vibration when those men hit those low notes. (I was so glad when my voice finally changed and I could hit those notes too!:)Here are a few of my favorites from the past.
Seeking the Lost (Going afar…upon the mountain)
Now the Day is Over
O Master Let Me Walk with Thee
O Lord, Our Lord
The Lord’s My Shepherd
Wow, I feel a lump in my throat! I thank God for my heritage!
Ross, you are my hero. Incredible selections. qb
Amen, Ross & qb.
Amen.
Elisabeth, your dad is amazing! Your post makes me cry. I would love to hear your two voices together. So sweet!
I grew up in Abilene and my dad would whistle every morning as he made breakfast so on M-F I woke to the theme song from Harry Holt’s morning show, on Sat. it was the theme song from “The Pink Panther” cartoon show, and on Sundays it was various hymns. I love his whistling… The first song I ever “led” in church was “On Jordan’s Stormy Banks.” I love “Just As I Am” and heard it so often as an “invitation song” even though it’s not really an invitation song.
When alone in my truck cruisin’ down the interstate, I belt out such hymns from childhood as “Oh, Why Not Tonight” (I “went forward” on that one), “Lo, What a Glorious Sight,” “Anywhere with Jesus,” “Wonderful Words of Life,” “Trust and Obey,” “Unto the Hills.”
#555 in Great Songs of the Church, “Lo, What a Glorious Sight” (His own soft hand shall wipe the tear from every weeping eye…)Gets mw every time!
How Great Thou Art
Nearer, Still Nearer
The Sands of Time–still chokes me up for reasons I have never deciphered–learned it at Highland late 60′s while a freshman at ACC.
The Lord Bless You and Keep You, frequently sung when someone near and dear was moving away, therefore very emotional.Especially with that “Sevenfold Amen”!
“Master, The Tempest Is Raging” brings back memories for me. As a kid, I always loved the songs that had a lot of dynamics.
Any Harding people remember “Master, The Tempest is Raging” led in chapel by Andy T. Richie?
I love all of the ones mentioned. I could add “Whispering Hope”.
I wonder if the next generation will have the nostalgia for the “happy clappy” songs. Somehow, I doubt it.
What a heritage of mentors in Christ that I have! Memories flood my soul of five with their favorite songs:
.
Dad: This World Is Not My Home
Mom: I Serve a Risen Savior
Papa Sikes: I Come to the Garden Alone
Mama Sikes: Led by the Master’s Hand
Granny Carron: Nearer Still Nearer
.
These people and these songs form parts of the very fiber that makes me me! GIGATTAATTGIG!
Heaven Holds All To Me…as well as other Tillit S Teddlie songs, because he was such a special friend, and he taught me…a child of 7, 8, 9…some of his songs before they were ever published, There is Power in the Blood (I can still see Burton Coffman standing at the front of the auditorium singing this with all his might), Rock of Ages, There’s a Fountain Free, Trust and Obey, Have Thine Own Way, Lord, My Jesus As Thou Wilt, On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand, Beneath the Cross of Jesus…so many many songs I could name. In recent years I’ve taken a closer look at the meaning behind the songs…the Scripture that might have inspired it…and I’m starting to keep a journal, so that some day my children and grandchildren will know what was flowing through my mind as I sang a song.
“O Sacred Head,” “Nearer, Still Nearer,” “Beneath the Cross of Jesus,” and “Night, with Ebon Pinion” (for communion).
Wow. Almost made it without someone trashing the newer stuff. Oh, well.
Folks respond so readily about hymns they love, as the above posts indicate. Personally, I would want any listing to include “It Is Well with My Soul,” “Jesus Loves Even Me,” and “Take the Name of Jesus with You.” But, dealing with church music, as I have for over half a century, and writing so much about hymn history, I have more favourites than I could mention.
Having also been reminded of the widespread love of our traditional hymns and gospel songs on my daily blog, Wordwise Hymns, it puzzles me (and saddens me) that some churches abandon the hymn book and opt for being strictly “contemporary.” Not that songs are better because they’re older (or vice versa), but we need to remember our heritage.