He Knows Just What I Need -- Thomas Mosie Lister

He was a 34-year old Southerner living in Atlanta (see the city’s seal here)  

who’d been engaged in music since he was a teenager, mostly as a singer, though his approach had changed just a few years earlier. Thomas Mosie Lister’s adjustment in his music life may have helped spawn “He Knows Just What I Need” that he composed in 1955, though the beliefs and musical talents no doubt had already been gestating in his being already. Was there something in what he penned that had been waiting to make its appearance, something he’d been feeling that he finally found the words to say? Perhaps it was the greater focus on the musical gift that spurred this song’s emergence. Mosie also must have experienced some challenges too, some holes in his life that found their voice in his composition.

Mosie Lister had sung in various Southern Gospel quartets for over a decade in the mid-20^th Century, a career that helped prepare him for another musical role in the 1950s and gave rise to the words he’d write in 1955. He’d had a respiratory infection that forced him to suspend singing for a while, but after recovering he resumed singing with the Statesmen, perhaps the most well-known of the groups that included his bass voice. By 1953 he had started his own music publishing enterprise, wherein he composed and arranged as an extension of his musical avocation. He soon made it his full-time professional venture, with his wife Wylene’s encouragement, and it was soon thereafter that he wrote “He Knows…”. What was his experience at the time, as he and his family resided in Atlanta? The words of two of the three verses he wrote speak of lonesomeness, a sense of being abandoned. Was this a personal admission Mosie was making? Or, maybe he wrote for someone close to himself, perhaps his wife or one or both of his twin daughters. Mosie and his family must also have been churchgoers, a place where he might have observed heartaches of spiritual family members too. This was an environment from which he did not try to escape apparently, as Mosie later became a minister. He knew, either personally or vicariously, that this inner struggle was common, but also knew how to address a friendship-starved heart.   

Theres’ no wavering in Mosie’s tone, even as he shares that he or someone he knew was in a struggle. Note how he begins two of the verses with some significant words – ‘My Jesus knows’. He acknowledges the human condition may leave one empty, but he doesn’t wallow in that. Begin by realizing He’s watching, and take that barren sensation that nags at you to Him. Mosie must have been confident to write this way, certain that God, perhaps even through people around him, could help. Believe He’s engaged, even if you have no proof. It’s called faith.

See this link for composer’s website: http://mosielister.com/Bio_2_8CA5.html

Also see here for more biographic information on composer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosie_Lister