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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.