This summer, we’re adding two hymns to our congregational repertoire. Most of what we sing in our worship services we call “modern hymns” (like “In Christ Alone”) or “classic hymns” (like “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”). These two hymns, though, are both modern and classic.
Here Is Love
“Here Is Love” is a late-20th-century blend of a classic hymn text and a classic hymn tune. Both text and tune were instrumental in the Welsh Revival (1904-5). In the 1970s Our choir and orchestra have sung a beautiful arrangement of it for many years:
Turn Your Eyes
“Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” is not as old as the Welsh original of “Here Is Love,” but it does turn 100 this year.
Helen Lemmel (1864-1961) was a Seattle music critic, a German-trained singer, and a director of women’s choirs for evangelist Billy Sunday. In 1922 she wrote a searching hymn that offered “light in the darkness” to the “weary and troubled” if they would only “look full” on the “wonderful face” of Jesus.
Helen Lemmel, 1895.
The setting we’re learning this summer takes Lemmel’s chorus as its first stanza and adds a new chorus and three gospel-filled stanzas:
Stanza 2 calls our attention to Calvary, “where justice and mercy embrace” (Psalm 85:10)
Because of the Resurrection, Stanza 3 reminds us, taking the Lord’s Supper obeys Jesus’ symbolic command to take His very life—His blood—into our bodies (Lev. 17:11; John 6:54-56; 1 Corinthians 11:25-27)
Stanza 4 calls us to long for the day when every knee bows and every tongue gives “glory to Jesus alone” (Philippians 2:10-11)
We sang it first in our 8/7 PM Singspiration—the classic version was requested by two different classes! We also sang it for the morning service on August 14.
Todd Jones
Assistant Pastor