For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)
Was Albert Brumley a morning person? If he wasn’t before the mid-1930s, he must have changed his mind, you’d probably say! Whether or not he had seen a morning sunrise like the one pictured here (painted by Claude Monet in 1872), Brumley had an image of how that endless morning would look, of saying to someone “I’ll Meet You in the Morning”. Did Albert expect to see that morning soon when he penned the words of three verses in 1936? Was he reading something that made him think, or was he longing to see someone again whom he missed? Maybe he was just trying to coax some others that the end of terrestrial existence wasn’t a time to dread.
Any number of factors may have contributed to Albert’s thoughts in 1936 about the future’s daybreak. Since his words indicate he was pondering the spiritual, the bible’s many expressions regarding this time may have stirred his imagination, including the ancient song that we know as Psalm 30, written by his musical predecessor David. Who the ‘you’ is that Albert wanted to greet in the afterlife is unknown, but there could be plenty of people that he meant, not unlike those whom you or I would have in mind. Albert had been married five years, having met and married in 1931 his wife Goldie, with whom he would raise a family of six children. Though they were yet a young family at that point, Albert and Goldie must have looked forward to the brood they would have together. Could it also be that Albert wanted to preserve the bonds with his mentor Eugene Bartlett, to whom he owed so much for the musical life that he had begun in 1926 with his help? Or, was it Joe Schell, his father-in-law, who was an occasional sounding board, in addition to Goldie, for Albert’s musical inventions? The Brumleys also belonged to a church in Powell, Missouri, so there could have been any number of spiritual family with whom Albert wanted to share the coming eternal dawn, even if he was just 31 at that point in his life. No doubt, Albert also must have pondered what it would be like to finally meet his God face-to-face, making his words ‘How do you do?’ (refrain) and ‘…exchange the old cross for a crown’ (v.2) the best clues pointing to whom Brumley was imagining.
What was David saying in his ode that may have resonated with Albert in the 1930s? David was overjoyed, reveling in God’s provision for him in times when his own mortality was at risk. To be lifted out of that danger, and set upon a rock, and to know that even His discipline and anger do not have to leave the repentant person eternally condemned, was a source of unspeakable joy. Well, it would have been unspeakable, except that David did speak of it. Albert’s journey by 1936, even for a relatively young man, embodied much that was worthy of an exclamation point, particularly how he met and was befriended by Eugene Bartlett (see the restoration movement link below). His life was almost penniless at one point in 1926, and yet he was able to ponder 10 years later the opposite end of the spectrum -- the eternal blessings of a morning yet to come. He’d come a long way in 10 years, but could imagine the distance and the time that, for some, might seem to be light years away. Can you picture it, today? Is morning still far away, or can you see it?
See a brief biography of composer here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/r/u/m/brumley_ae.htm
And here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_E._Brumley
Also here: https://hymnary.org/person/Brumley_Albert
See a very good personal biography of the author here: https://www.therestorationmovement.com/_states/tennessee/brumley.htm
See biography on composer in Our Garden of Song, edited by Gene C. Finley, Howard Publishing Company, West Monroe, Louisiana, 1980.
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