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Hymn Story: In the Garden

If you attend a classic “singspiration” at a church gathering or the funeral of an older person, the odds of you singing or hearing this song are pretty high.

At least in my experience. Along with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” this one seems to rank up there as one of the all-time favourites for people from the middle of the 20th century.

Flowers in the Garden

“I Come to the Garden Alone,” also known as “In the Garden,” is a hymn with lyrics written by American songwriter C. Austin Miles in 1912. The hymn is based on an experience Miles claimed to have had in his garden while reflecting on the biblical account of Mary Magdalene encountering the risen Christ in the garden near the tomb.

Interestingly, I also find that many people are unaware of the song’s connection to Jesus’ resurrection and his appearance to Mary of Magdala. They latch onto the personal nature of the song as they think about God’s abiding presence with them, but they don’t know that the song originated from someone’s literal meeting with Jesus in a garden while he was still on Earth.

According to Miles, he was inspired to write the hymn after reading the Gospel of John, specifically the passage about Mary Magdalene’s encounter with Jesus on the morning of His resurrection (John 20:11-18). In this account, Mary goes to the tomb and, finding it empty, encounters Jesus, whom she initially mistakes for the gardener. It’s at this point that Jesus reveals Himself to her, saying her name, and Mary responds, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Miles was deeply moved by the idea of a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus, akin to the relationship between the gardener and the visitor in the garden. This inspired him to write the lyrics to “I Come to the Garden Alone” as a reflection on the joy of communing with Christ in a quiet and solitary place, similar to the garden setting in the biblical narrative.

The hymn has resonated with many over the years for its emphasis on the personal connection with Jesus and the sense of peace and communion found in spending time alone with Him.

But more significantly, its lyrics speak to the profound experience of encountering the risen Christ in the garden. Oh, what a day that must have been! I would love to hear Mary’s first-hand account of it someday.

By the way, C. Austin Miles wrote and contributed to several Christian songs. Did you know that he wrote a hymn entitled, “In the Upper Room” (1898)? Perhaps we’ll take a look at that song in a future post.

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Hymn Story: Joy to the World

“And heaven ‘n nature sing! And heaven ‘n nature sing!”

Is anything more indicative that Christmas season has arrived than that familiar chorus wafting triumphantly through the air?

Ironically, the basis for these words is separated from the events of the nativity by over 2000 years.

Joy to the World“Joy to the World” as a hymn that reflects on the universal joy that should accompany the coming of the Lord, drawing inspiration from Psalm 98. The lyrics of the song were penned by Englishman Isaac Watts, a prolific hymn writer. The “Father of English Hymnody” published the lyrics in 1719 as part of his collection of hymns titled “The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament.”

Ironically, just as “Joy to the World” is not actually a Christmas song, Psalm 98 is not actually attributed to David.

The specific inspiration for the hymn came from verses 4-9 of Psalm 98. These verses express the joy of all creation at the second coming of the Lord. Watts adapted and paraphrased the psalmic text to create the lyrics that we now erroneously associate with Christ’s first advent.

A closer look at the Psalms shows us that Psalms 96 and 97 are thematically tied to Psalm 98, each of them celebrating the Messiah’s rule over the entire world. As we know (and as Watts knew) from the New Testament, Jesus did not rule over the whole earth during his first coming.

In another twist of misunderstandings, the musical setting commonly used for “Joy to the World” is attributed to the German composer George Frideric Handel. However,  the melody was likely adapted by Lowell Mason in the 19th century from themes found in Handel’s works, thus lending to the misattribution to the “Messiah’s” composer.

I love to sing “Joy to the World,” and I love to play it and hear it played. Its lively and awe-inspiring melody, combined with the exuberant lyrics, has made it a timeless and festive addition to Christmas celebrations around the world.

Personally, I am not opposed to its inclusion during the Christmas season, but I think it should always be placed in its proper context.

Just as we remind people that Santa Claus doesn’t actually deliver gifts on Christmas Eve, we should never sing or play “Joy to the World” without reminding people that it’s not a song about Christ’s birth.

Misappropriated theology is bad theology, and if we sing or play this hymn unaware of its true message, we communicate misinformation and confusion about what really happened when Christ came to earth the first time.

Here’s an idea: Read Psalm 98 together before singing the song so that Scripture can breathe even more life into Watts’ lyrics!

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Hymn Story: What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Who do you turn to during difficult times? Where do you run when the earth shakes? Where do you sail when the storms blow?

A few days ago at a pastor’s retreat, we sang several songs about the love and faithfulness of God. Ministry is all about relationships, and many of those relationships bring more pain than they do joy.

But there is one relationship we can always rely on to provide us hope, comfort, and encouragement, and that relationship is so beautifully expressed by Joseph Scriven in the song “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”

This was one of our last songs at the retreat, and before we sang it, our song leader shared the story behind the well-known hymn.

Joseph ScrivenBorn in 1819 in Ireland, Joseph Scriven was known as a hard-working, generous man. He loved serving others.  He graduated from Trinity College in Dublin at the age of 24, and in 1844 he had plans to get married.

The night before his wedding, however, tragedy struck, and his fiance accidentally drowned. A year later, Scriven left Ireland and settled in Ontario, Canada.

There he met a woman named Eliza Rice, and they were engaged to be married. But a few weeks before the wedding, Miss Rice came down with an illness that no one could diagnose, and shortly thereafter she too died.

Scriven decided to sell his possessions and live a life of celibacy, finding comfort in the only Friend who would never leave him.

A few years later, Scriven heard that his mother was sick, but he did not have the means necessary to make the trip back home to care for her.

So he wrote her a letter containing these words: “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.”

It is not known exactly how the words ended up in print, but somehow someone got hold of the words and had them published.

Scriven himself died at age 66 when he drowned in a lake during a time of deep depression in his life.

Even when we follow God and trust him, we will experience trials. We will have our share of “sins and griefs” that are an inevitable result of living in a fallen world.

But what an amazing friend we have in Jesus.

I need this reminder every day.

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.

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Hymn Story: Come, Thou Almighty King

Great Britain OlympicsAs the national anthem played and the gold medalist stood there proudly looking at their nation’s flag, I thought, “What?! For real?!”

Okay, so I’m familiar with the “Star Spangled Banner,” and I know the first two words of the Canadian national anthem, but other than that, I’m quite ignorant of all the other countries.

So when I heard “God Save the King/Queen” being played, I thought it was ironic that America has a distinctly patriotic song to that same tune. I thought, “How typical of us to take a patriotic song from Mother England and put our own words to it so that it communicates the exact opposite message.”

Whenever we hear a tune without words, we immediately associate it with whatever lyrics we learned to that melody. But there are actually many tunes that have more than one set of lyrics associated with them.

What many people don’t realize is that melodies often have their own name unassociated with the song to which they are played. For example, “Holy, Holy, Holy” is sung to a tune called “Nicaea.” So if you hear the tune to this popular trinitarian song without any words, you’re not actually listening to “Holy, Holy, Holy”- you’re listening to “Nicaea.”

“Hyferdol” is a popular tune in many hymnals, probably best known as the tune for “Our Great Savior.” But if you play it in December, it suddenly becomes a Christmas tune with the words “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus.”

CrownOkay, now on to the point of this post. Did you know that “Come Thou Almighty King” was once sung to the same tune as “God Save the King”?

This year I’ve decided to study as many hymn stories as possible just for fun, and this is one of my favourites so far.

Nobody knows who penned the words. It once appeared in a pamphlet alongside a Charles Wesley hymn, but no definitive evidence attributes this other song to Wesley.

Regardless of its origin, there is a story about this hymn that seems quite plausible. During America’s struggle for independence, there was a certain day when some British soldiers entered a worship service at a colonial church.

The soldiers commanded the church to sing, “God Save the King.” In a show of submission and clever rebellion, the people sang, “Come, Thou Almighty King” to the same tune of England’s well-known anthem.

It was almost as if the people said, “We have no king but God!”

As the story goes, the soldiers left without doing any harm to the people.

Who is your king? Does your king reside on earth or in heaven?

Here are a couple YouTube videos for your listening pleasure. The first video contains the tune that we associate with the hymn, and the second one is the UK National Anthem.

Try singing the hymn to tune in the second video and imagine what it might have been like to be part of that small congregation 300 years ago that stood up the king’s men.