Higher Ground -- Johnson Oatman, Jr.

It’s said that Johnson Oatman wasn’t quite satisfied where he was (most likely in New Jersey)

by the time he was 30-something, so he developed a therapy that seemed to scratch the itch he felt. “Higher Ground” was something that he needed to express in the 1890s, something that evidently rang true for so many others that it’s still making noises in the Christian communities of our world over 100 years later. What do you do when you sense disquiet in your being, a gnawing emptiness you don’t know how to fill? Oatman knew there was a vacuum, so he penned some words, a method that he used over and over and over, indeed thousands of times.

Johnson Oatman was such a prolific songwriter that one might assume that he made his living this way, but the opposite reality ironically may have compelled him to write words that he might not have otherwise.  He’d been ordained as a minister in New Jersey before he was 20, so he must have wanted to become a professional at teaching and preaching and winning souls for the Christian kingdom at one point in his life, right? He evidently leaned that direction, but instead made his living in his family’s mercantile business and later in the insurance field following his father’s death. In his mid-30s, Oatman began to write songs when he wasn’t occupied in business. And, he must have pondered quite a bit about his faith and had a deep desire to advance God’s kingdom even while at his job, because he apparently wrote lyrics for thousands of songs -- perhaps at least 3,000, though one source says 5,000. That would mean he wrote at least two per week through the rest of his life, which ended at 66 years of age in 1922! One must have a constant spark to compose so much on a regular basis, so maybe his daily professional life indeed played a role in his rich hymn-writing ventures. The words he wrote in “Higher Ground”, one of his earliest compositions, suggest he longed for something more beyond what his daily life was showing him. He sought ‘new heights’ (v. 1) and aspired to another world (vv.3-4), evidently as sought to escape this world’s ‘doubts’ and ‘fears’ (v. 2). Would he have been so driven to compose if he’d been satisfied with his earthly life? Higher ground probably wouldn’t have meant so much to a fellow who was totally content.       

 

How many people wander about on planet Earth with Oatman’s condition? Think of all the addictions or other unhealthy adventures pursued, and how often is this because someone is dissatisfied with life’s tedium? It’s OK to admit life might be dull. But, what to do with that is the issue. What if you could talk to a guy named David who lived over 3,000 years ago? Or others like him, with their names similarly scrawled across a musical page? They’re not here, but you can see their formulae for life-challenging problems. The songs aren’t necessarily always upbeat, though many or most are. Got a problem, or have something you want to say? Try picking up a pen or pencil…even during a spare minute at work. That was the Johnson Oatman method.

Information on the song’s composer was obtained from the books  Amazing Grace – 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, 1990, Kregel Publications; 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 101 More Hymn Stories by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985.

See also here for four verses and refrain of hymn: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/h/i/g/highergr.htm

See also here for brief biography of the composer: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/o/a/t/oatman_j.htm