Jesus Is Lord – Jerry Sinclair?

The next time you’re in Lawton Oklahoma, or Calais or Caribou, Maine, or Orange County, California, you might consider the story of Jerry Sinclair and how he wrote a song that was published in 1972. The song as originally penned was known as “Alleluia”, a word often used throughout the Psalms when worshippers are exhorted to ‘praise the Lord’. A plain, easily understood imperative, it’s one that a Psalmist uses probably because its message is so uncomplicated. Jerry Sinclair travelled across the continent, and midway between the two coasts, or perhaps on one of the coasts, he wrote this tune, an anchor for him and other ‘Jesus People’ in the 1970s. 

If it’s surprising for you to discover this song’s composer, you’re not alone. Most songbooks mention words like ‘traditonal’ or perhaps ‘American folk melody’ in the composition portion of the byline.  (Pam Stephenson, or many other names might also be credited with the arrangement, depending on the version being used.) Other hymn researchers I have encountered enlighten us further, telling us that in fact Jerry Sinclair wrote the original notes and words while in Lawton, Oklahoma on a street ministry campaign. Others say he actually wrote it at the end of his journey from his hometown in Calais, Maine to southern California. Yet another source – Barbara Quinn (see one of the song’s comments below) – indicates he wrote the song in the early 1960s while in Caribou, Maine.  Sinclair, and many others with him, were on fire for Jesus, and wrote simply to give themselves and their hearers a pure, basic message, unpolluted by a culture from which it sprang. Another ‘Jesus freak’ who comes to mind is Linda Stassen (“Sing Hallelujah to the Lord”, see entry for February 21, 2009). Like Stassen’s song, Sinclair’s “Alleluia” became popular abroad in many nations. 

Perhaps others around in the world have sung it around the campfire, as I have.  No flashlights are necessary to see the words or the music in the twilight shadows or in the pitch black. It’s so simple, the chords and words flow naturally, like walking up and down stair steps. As another researcher has pointed out, there are only four different melodic notes and just three harmonic chords to think about in the song. Perhaps that’s why so many lovers of this tune have invented different four-syllable phrases to make up the various verses that have evolved over time (up to 10? different verses in just a few sources consulted). When you love something, and are drawn to it, there’s a natural desire to have the experience grow and flourish. That’s how we might feel around the fire on a brisk night. Just look into the only light around, and let its presence and warmth remind you of Him. Maybe those words were even spoken as the song flowed at camp some evening in your memory. It would be interesting to hear what Jerry Sinclair thought about when he heard the song…but we don’t have to imagine really, because he wrote it down for us. If I sang all the verses that were ever composed for this song, perhaps they’d best be summed up this way. Jesus and Alleluia for all that He’s done and will do for me.    

  

See the following website for the story of the song “Jesus Is Lord”, which is often called “Alleluia”: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/hymnstudies/565476/. Also see The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs byWilliam J. and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers , Inc. ,2006.