O for a Closer Walk with God -- William Cowper

 

There must have been many times that this despondent poet wished he were in an ancient character’s shoes, as he read about the close of that man’s life. The Englishman William Cowper was often in the throes of gloom, including on one occasion as a 38-year old when he said ‘O for a Closer Walk with God’, because anxiety about a close friend’s serious illness consumed him. What could he do, except write about his feelings? Having a like-minded friend with whom he could share his poetic streak helped, and certainly was part of why William’s thoughts survive today, 250 years later.

 

William Cowper’s poetry might be described as the therapy that he needed throughout his life. Perhaps one root cause of his lifelong struggle with depression was in his childhood, when his mother died giving birth to his brother (John), an incident upon which William still reflected some 50 years later. Other episodes in his teens and early adulthood led to suicide attempts and time spent in an asylum for recovery. In the wake of this dark period, Cowper’s faith and poetic skills became synergistic, and in no small way coaxed by the relationship he developed with a couple, Morley and Mary Unwin, and a fellow poet and preacher John Newton. The Olney Hymns that Cowper and Newton collaborated to compile was a very notable outcome of this friendship, and contains Cowper’s ‘O for a Closer Walk…’. William reportedly penned his six verses during a serious health challenge in 1769 for Mary Unwin, whom William regarded as a guardian, perhaps even as a mother-like figure in his life. He lived with the Unwins, including the widowed Mary, for over two decades. It’s suggested that Cowper’s verses were a reflection upon a verse he read one day about Enoch and his walk with God (Genesis 5:24), which apparently stretched into Eternity when God took him. Cowper’s heart for Mary’s well-being was in anguish, as he read about the closeness of Enoch and his Creator. Was it this relationship that coaxed to the surface William’s own words, like a salve to calm his own spirit? Perhaps that soothing effect was what caused William to doze off, then to awaken with additional verses in his head for the song he would soon complete. Cowper’s verses might be interpreted as autobiographical, when he calls out in verses 2 and 3 with words that sound like someone who was missing a peace he once had .. ‘Where is the blessedness I knew…what peaceful hours I once enjoyed…’, now occupied by ‘an aching void’. The God he invites to return to his life is ‘O holy dove’,  and a ‘sweet messenger’ (v.3). Perhaps we could say God heard Cowper’s prayer-like verses, because Mary reportedly recovered and lived for another 27 years.

 

The ‘calm’ and ‘serene’ (v.6) was what William sought from a walk with God. Nevertheless, William Cowper still struggled with the gloom, even late in his life following the death of Mary Unwin in 1796. So, is God not effective in the human life, including in one as troubled as William’s evidently was, on occasion? It seems that William could not find his own answers at times, but he certainly knew who cared about him. One of his other hymns reflected that he could not understand God, that He was a mystery (see blog entry for Sep. 12, 2009). And yet, William still tried, in his feeble way, to reach Him. Strangely, if William had been ‘strong’ by some people’s definition, can we say he would have written as he did and given you and me a voice for our times of melancholy? Hey, even Jesus cried out in a garden, and said ‘Why…’ (have you forsaken me – Matthew 27:46). The point is not whether I cry out, but to whom.  

 

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990; 101 More Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985; and Then Sings My Soul, by Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.   

 

Also see this link, showing all four original verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/f/o/r/oforaclo.htm

 

Also see this link for author’s biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cowper

And here also: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/o/w/p/cowper_w.htm 

Abide With Me -- Henry F. Lyte

(Luke 24:29)

He was a 54-year old, who knew the end might be near. And so, Henry Francis Lyte wrote for all of us “Abide with Me”, allowing us to imagine what was in his soul as he pondered the conclusion of his mortality. What would you or I record, if granted the opportunity and the calm demeanor to pen meaningful words for others to read? Would it matter if the approaching finality was sudden or expected? Perhaps Henry’s version might have been considered a curse by some, since he had to bear for a pretty long period the ill health that ultimately cornered him. But, on the other hand, maybe it gave him the proper perspective, and helped gestate his poignant words over time. Perhaps death should be something you and I consider carefully.

Henry Lyte was a sickly minister in the Church of England throughout all of his adult life, but it’s said that he didn’t let that diminish his effort to serve. He’s the one who would have preferred to ‘wear out, rather than rust out’, and so is it ironically possible that this desire drew him to an early grave? He ministered energetically, despite his chronic asthma and the tuberculosis that ultimately caused his demise. It was only as his health reached a new low that Henry decided a temporary move to a warmer climate in Italy was a good idea in 1847. Nevertheless, he gathered himself for another sermon as he prepared to depart, delivering a final message to the crowd to whom he’d ministered for some 20 years in Lower Brixham. His words reportedly stuck with his hearers, who remembered his admonition that they consider their own mortality with great care. Was his sermon in fact based upon the eight-verse poem that he composed about abiding? Some have said his thoughts were, at least in part, from the perspective of two 1^st Century disciples who encountered Jesus after He arose, but did not immediately recognize Him. These Emmaus travelers (Luke 24:13-35) were glum, initially, because of death – Jesus’ death. But their spirits rebounded in His presence, especially when He prepared to eat the evening meal with them. Is that what Henry imagined – perhaps a bit cheated and down in the dumps, but then deeply satisfied and hopeful because of the promise he possessed as a believer, too. He called out for God’s abiding presence, knowing this was not in vain. Some historians have speculated that Henry may have in fact composed much of the poem decades earlier, and then polished it as he prepared to depart for Italy years later. No matter – thoughts of eternity and its import for many years or even decades would not have been unusual for someone in Henry’s circumstance. In fact, the fog of ill health likely would have compelled the composer’s entreaty to God from an early age. Perhaps it was a fog that he felt was lifting, as he earnestly sought his hearers’ attention with his last sermon and this poem.     

He was thinking about Jesus, but not about His death. Instead the moments after life began anew for Jesus may have been on Henry’s mind. My favorite of his eight verses is number seven. It’s where Henry paraphrases what Paul writes to some Corinthians about death’s sting being muted (1 Corinthians 15:55). The potency of the old apostle’s words weren’t worn out, unlike Henry’s body. They’re from Paul’s spirit, and therefore from the Spirit above. It seems that Henry found something there that gave his own spirit an injection of life. Plug into somebody that cannot die, and abide with Him! That was Henry’s solution to his own situation…how about yours?    

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990; 101 Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985; A Treasury of Hymn Stories, by Amos R. Wells, Baker Book House, 1945; and Then Sings My Soul, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.  

See this site for all eight of the original verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/a/b/i/abidewme.htm

My Faith Looks Up to Thee -- Ray Palmer

Ray Palmer was just a young fellow, but he had feelings and physical symptoms that belied his age and clouded his future. So in 1830 he composed a poem “My Faith Looks Up to Thee” as a very personal prayer – a needy individual calling out for divine help. Its creation offers a method that other writers may find is not easily duplicated, for did Palmer really intend the outcome that came about when he sat down and poured out the words in despair? Would anyone else intentionally submit to such a process? If they knew that’s how God works, would that alter their music-writing ventures?  

Ray Palmer’s first effort at songwriting would not be his last, and his first had been incubating for perhaps several years before it was hatched.  Palmer’s schooling as a teenager had been suspended for a time out of financial necessity, but his education continued later in his youth and coincided with his heart turning to God. He eventually attended and graduated from Yale University with an aim toward ministry, while coincidentally teaching part-time at a girls’ school in New York City – no doubt a taxing schedule. He had been ill, both physically and emotionally, for a year when he sat down as a 22-year old to reach inside himself and find God’s help through words from his heart. He wanted something that he could carry as a reminder, to lift his spirit daily, for he must have seen a long road in front of himself. ‘Would the previous year’s experience be what ministry entailed?’, he may have worried. His devotion to God had spawned in his teens, and he was still clinging to that faith and to the road to ministry he had set before himself. But, there was no denying that loneliness, depression, and sickness also inhabited his being – he admitted this too. He kept the four-stanza composition in a notebook in his coat pocket. His poem might have remained between himself and its addressee (God), if two years later he hadn’t bumped into his friend Lowell Mason, a music-writer who was hunting new songs for his latest project. The rest, as has been said, is history. Palmer would write a few dozen other song poems during his life, yet he may have employed the best technique for this part of his ministry just as he was beginning.

Palmer probably never forgot how his prayer played out – that we know the story of its conception assures us of this. It really sticks with a believer, to sense when God has heard and delivers His response. Ray admitted to Him how he felt in his verses – guilt, weakness, fear, overwhelming sadness, and even some distrust. Perhaps Ray felt that he had nothing to lose at that point. After all, the year had already been pretty tough on him, so why not be honest, while telling Him you still think He’s capable of delivering the Providential goods? That Palmer was still engaged in ministry two years hence, when he encountered his friend and shared the poem, tells us that God did reply. Maybe God taking his servant’s request-prayer to the next level—making it public, and lifting it for others to see for the last 185 years--was what Palmer could not have anticipated. What do you think Ray would say if he were here today? He’d probably say ‘See, God’s still here…and He may have a surprise for you’.     

Information on the song was also obtained from the books  Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990, Kregel Publications; 101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985; The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, 2006, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.; and Then Sings My Soul – 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.

See following site also. http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/m/y/f/myfluptt.htm