A Beautiful Prayer -- Luther G. Presley

 

He just might have been inside his Pangburn, Arkansas home in 1937 (in rural White County), and could he have been engaged in his own prayer when he considered the prayer of another? Was it indeed a personal experience that Luther G. Presley had, which prompted him to write about “A Beautiful Prayer” that God Himself spoke? Luther must have had a variety of methods and stories that he could relate about how and why his 1,000 + songs were penned. His immersion in the music business, on top of his gift for musical poetry since his teenage years, provided a deep well of resources that Luther accessed daily, including on this occasion. This well had not run dry for 50-year-old Luther Presley; indeed, he had many more years of inspiration remaining in his musical life, a life that could be called a beautiful prayer of its own.

 

It is said that Luther often wrote many of his songs following a personal experience, but whether ‘A Beautiful Prayer’ arose this way too is a mystery. What we can say with certainty, however, is that the verses he crafted must have emerged as he read from his bible the prayer that Jesus spoke so earnestly a short time before His death. Gethsemane (otherwise referred to as a garden, or a place on the Mount of Olives) was the scene that Luther did not need to imagine all on his own, for its events are recorded in four accounts (Matthew 26; Mark 14; Luke 22; John 18:1) that Luther could have read, providing a rich insight into the most troubling time in the Divine One’s life. Maybe that’s what drew Luther to this prayer – because the most meaningful and poignant conversations between us earth-dwellers and our Maker is when life itself is in the balance. And, that was no different for God the Son when He spoke with His Father on this occasion. His prayer was multi-faceted. He was concerned for His followers, as Luther reminds us with the refrain words ‘…the anguish death would bring to His own’. His emotions of ‘wonderful love’ (v.1) were mingled with ‘sad (ness)’ (v.2) and ‘deep agony’ (v.3), a reminder that such a time is so difficult perhaps because of the conflicting emotions. Jesus was willing to proceed with ‘thy will, not my own’ (v.2), yet was haunted and asked to be relieved of ‘this cup’ (refrain), if possible. His insides were a twist, even for God. A deathbed experience often has loved ones nearby for comfort, while departure’s inevitability intrudes. Were similar episodes from his own life still in Luther’s thoughts, even from 15 years earlier (in 1922) when his first wife and third son died in childbirth? Was a more recent loss on his mind? Some might say Luther and others who dwell on a prayer about death’s approaching impact are being unnecessarily morbid. Why would God want us to know in detail what was being said, and how Jesus felt in His tormented prayer? Was Luther aware of an answer, as he wrote and thought about this prayer?

 

What did Luther think about Jesus’ prayer? He thought it was ‘beautiful’, that much we know. And, though this is a deathbed-like prayer, Luther doesn’t try to avoid its realities. Jesus was sad, He agonized over this impending event, and yet was submissive. Read that in your bible – the Almighty was submissive. Seems like a contradiction in terms, right? How can our Creator, the Maker of all things, be a willing victim of death? Luther’s poetry reminds us that Jesus wasn’t immune to those feelings that hover over and sometimes swallow up my sense of balance. Death can do that. Is that why I am allowed to see Jesus struggling here? And yet, He prayed. Luther Presley wasn’t morbid. He just showed me another reason to love and trust my God even more, why I and everyone else can be drawn to this Sacrificial Lamb.

 

See brief biography on author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/p/r/e/s/presley_lg.htm

 

More lengthy bio here: http://www.ucalldatmusic.com/L_G_Presley.htm

 

Biography here also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_G._Presley

God Is Calling the Prodigal -- Charles Hutchinson Gabriel

 

Thirty-three years old, was he. And, he was reading a particular story from his bible that sparked his thoughts for a song called “God Is Calling the Prodigal” (abbreviated title is “Calling the Prodigal”; depicted in this 18^th Century masterpiece by Pompeo Batoni). Charles Hutchinson Gabriel would travel a musical road for several more decades, but this was one of the earliest steps he took on that journey. Was he thinking of himself or maybe someone else as he wrote three verses about responding to a patient and expectant father, a parent who has open arms for a child who has been flagrantly reckless in all his financial habits? He’d just moved far away from his native Iowa, when his words about someone who’d wandered far afield made it onto a page. Could Charles have thought of himself as prodigal at the time? Maybe it was just a sermon topic that grabbed his attention, as it had in the rural Iowa community where he'd been raised, and where he had a reputation for that specific method of song-writing since his teenage years.

 

We won’t know with total clarity, on this side of eternity, why Charles Gabriel composed a song about the Prodigal Son –unless someone reading has some further insight!. And yet, we can gather something key from what he gave us in 1889. Gabriel reportedly wrote thousands of songs over his lifetime, to the point of using several pseudonyms in order to promote their publication. So, one can imagine that Charles Gabriel must have used some well-worn modes of songwriting, if thousands could be attributed to him. Sermon topics and bible stories must have been one of the more common approaches in his repertoire. This story of a prodigal son – a wildly extravagant offspring, who was so self-focused and ill-disciplined, that it was not a surprise that he quickly blew all of his resources – presents a quandary for the responsible Christian. Like others who heard the story Jesus told, and which was recorded in just one of the gospel accounts (Luke 15), Charles must have heard hearers cheering that the irresponsible son had gotten what he deserved when he found himself in a pigpen. But, if that were the end of the story, you can imagine that Charles asked himself, ‘What would that say about God’? What if each of us got his due for even the one time that we made a mistake, especially a big one? Could that internal question have been one Charles asked himself, as he composed his three verses? Rather than focus on the great joy the sinner has in receiving grace, Gabriel instead concentrates on ‘the loving voice’ of the Father (all three verses). The story, as printed in most bibles today, says ‘The Lost Son Parable’, but was that how Charles saw it? I, the weary prodigal, do indeed need to recognize my condition. But Charles also emphasizes the key to a life-saving maneuver: hearing and responding to a Father’s love. Seek to recover a place in ‘His presence’ (v.1); appreciate that He’s a ‘patient, loving, and tender’ being (v.2); understand that His house always has ‘bread’, indeed an abundance that reflects His character (v.3). And, He’s eager to share.  

 

Charles Gabriel must have heard the story so many times by the time he was 33. You and I get a reprieve, a grace that is crucial, and yet one that is impossible to repay. How far down can one fall, and still get redemption? It’s a bottomless cavern, this well of His grace. It’s like hitting the lottery, with millions beyond what I could possibly spend in my account. For Charles, the prodigal needs to realize one thing about himself – you get ‘weary’ (refrain), and there is a bottom. That’s the difference between God and me. He doesn’t get tired, or come to a place where there’s no more to give me. He’s always calling, and inviting, and blessing. That’s God. I may be a prodigal, reckless in my attitude and behavior. Thank God that He’s even more lavish toward me and you.    

 

Biography on the author: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/g/a/b/r/gabriel_ch.htm

 

More biography here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_H._Gabriel

 

And here: https://hymnary.org/person/Gabriel_Charles

 

All the song’s verses: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/c/a/l/l/callprod.htm

Are You Coming to Jesus Tonight? -- Jessie Brown Pounds

 

This 28-year-old Ohioan asked a question over and over again in 1889, hoping it would sink into the hearts and minds of those who would listen. This was the method of Jessie Brown Pounds, but asking “Are You Coming to Jesus Tonight?” wasn’t just a question that she hoped would penetrate hearers’ spirits and make them think. This one entreaty that she uses in each of her five verses emerged each time from a different person or group, at least one of whom she must have trusted would ultimately soften the hardened shell of someone’s heart. It’s as if she’s saying ‘No one wants to be abandoned, and alone forever! Take the hand of your loved one, friend, and even God, and come join the happy and contented.’ Jessie even suggests that this calloused person should look inward, and not ignore the voice that is trying to tell one the truth. It’s the only truth that matters for all time. Know what it is?

 

Jessie had a well-honed gift for writing that she’d been developing for over ten years by the time she wrote her musical question late in the 19^th Century. Perhaps it was her subpar health and education at home that helped spur this talent on the farm in Hiram, in northern Ohio where she lived as a youngster. Although she eventually became a college graduate, Jessie’s career as a writer began in her mid-teens when she routinely offered some of her writing to editors of Cleveland-area newspapers and several religious journals, one of whom coaxed her to make the poems she crafted into hymns. Someone might say ‘And now you know the rest of the story’. Indeed, she produced several hundred hymn texts over the 60 years of her life, among them the one that she penned as a young woman in 1889. Even though many thought of her as a ‘new woman’, because of her higher education, Jessie also leaned on her Christian values to guide her life. Her hymn is likely one outgrowth of her association with journals that were part of the Stone-Campbell religious movement that was prevalent in the mid-to-late 19^th Century. What she wrote shows the major focus of that movement – Christ, and bringing people to faith in Him. While her repeated question implicitly urges a response, she also had various messengers beseech the reluctant souls in the poetry. Besides the ‘Savior’ (v.1) and the ‘Father’ (v.2), Jessie must have thought ‘loved ones’ (v.3) and ‘friends gone before’ (v.4) would be very influential in this evangelistic objective. She ultimately presses the hearer to ‘be true’ (v.5) to himself. Was there someone or group of people to whom Jessie was writing at the time? Was this personal, maybe with the song intended to coax a family member or close friend who was still uncommitted? Some things we will need to discover directly from her, in the next life.

 

Jessie made her question an offering, too. Her words read like gentle persuasion, not fire and brimstone warnings. This Father-God ‘implores’ and his ‘love…outpours’(v.2); while ‘loved ones entreat’ (v.3); and friends ‘tenderly say’ what needs to be said (v.4); and finally, all ‘these voices invite’ (v.5). Had she alternately tried another approach, that is as biblically true as the one she employed here? Hell is real, she must have told herself and, at times, others who needed to hear that such a place might be one’s horrible and eternal destination. But, perhaps Jessie thought of some other verses in which God and love are intermingled, especially where that writer said He is love itself (1 John 4:8). He invented it, has perfected it. And so, Jessie evidently thought the best way to point others to Him was by adopting His most basic characteristic when talking to others. She didn’t try to tell people how they should answer her question. She just asked.  

 

 

 

Biography of the author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/p/o/u/n/pounds_jb.htm

 

See here also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessie_Brown_Pounds

 

See all the song’s verses and the refrain here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/a/r/e/y/areyouco.htm