Yes For Me He Careth -- Horatius Bonar

 

This 32-year-old Scotsman (this work of art depicts him as a young man, perhaps not too different than he appeared at the time) had just travelled through a couple of his life’s major turning points. And so, Horatius Bonar, must have appreciated God’s presence very much when he said “Yes For Me He Careth”. It probably was not the first time, nor would it be the last time, either, that Horatius lauded His close proximity and camaraderie, evident in the hundreds of hymns that this man who was called a ‘prince’ would author. Trouble and joy both inhabited the spirit of Horatius in 1844, prompting him to notice and pen the words describing how he felt with His Lord so close by. One might say that his poetry resonates like a love song, reminding hearers of the many facets this Deity’s nature can take to caress those in His image.

 

Horatius Bonar earned the nickname ‘prince of Scottish hymn writers’, with over 600 hymns attributed to him over the seven decades that he lived in Scotland, including over 50 years as an ordained minister. By his early 30s (in 1843), Horatius married and also left the established Church of Scotland to join the Free Church of Scotland, two events that one can imagine gave this man’s life no small amount of upheaval, both good and bad. The marriage’s emotional impact on Horatius is not recorded for us, but the events of the Disruption of 1843 – which severed ties between hundreds of ministers and elders and the established church – was no doubt bitter. (The ‘free’ church objected to the British government’s control over clerical positions and benefits.) It was the year afterward in which‘Yes…He Careth’ was first published, in the first of eight collections of poems and hymns that Bonar would write over nearly a four-decade stretch of his life. This first collection was titled Songs for the Wilderness, so were Horatius’ thoughts in “Yes…He Careth’ spurred by his communing with nature in his native Edinburgh area (coastal southeastern Scotland), specifically the Kelso area where he was at the time? One could imagine Bonar taking a walk in some woods or in a meadow in the wake of the events in his recent past, and saying ‘Lord, I love you for being nearby, and for looking out for me’. He lauded God’s willingness not only to ‘care’ for him, but also to ‘share…burden…fear’, to ‘watch’, and to ‘snatch’ him from danger (v.1). While verse one’s focus could be interpreted as earthly concerns, Bonar turns to the spiritual in verse two, with God ‘pleading at the mercy seat’, ‘interceding’, (in)dwelling, and filling this Scotsman. (Original words according to one source. Other sources show alternate words.) Perhaps it was this pretty volatile season of life, with two very important events that nearly coincided, that so drew Horatius’ attention to the One on whom he could depend for calm reassurance. That indeed would be reason for poetry and music-making.

 

Can you and I draw on this early 30s experience that Horatius Bonar endured in 1843? It’s almost a rhetorical question, since no one has a perfectly smooth journey from birth to death. Ups and downs define my walk, how about you? I can usually tell when something’s got hold of me, by my sleep patterns. It’s almost analogous to what historians have said regarding war and peace on earth – peace is not the norm, war is. That’s also true of an individual’s experience, and if I can judge from my own sleep cycles, they indicate when my insides are unsettled, even at war sometimes, with my peaceful aspirations. But, Horatius tells me that God is still there, even so. It seems like Horatius dwelled in that realization to arrive at the peace he found. Sounds like a plan to me.

 

See information on the author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/o/n/a/bonar_h.htm

 

See also here: https://hymnary.org/person/Bonar_Horatius

 

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

 

See the song’s verses here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/y/f/m/h/yfmhcare.htm

 

See here some description of a major event in the author’s life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruption_of_1843

Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone -- John Newton, Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio

 

How many song ideas have been born thousands of feet in the air? Chris Tomlin did not get to complete his version of John Newton’s “Amazing Grace” while still airborne in 2006, but it wasn’t long before “My Chains Are Gone” leapt out of his mind and onto a page one night. Reading about Newton’s history and considering the impact of the slave trade’s end in Britain in the early 19^th Century, Chris had a rush of feelings and words that came effortlessly. Perhaps it was not unlike what would happen many years later on another continent., when the Emancipation Proclamation emerged to free millions of slaves in the U.S., an event that is still commemorated (including on stamps like the one in this picture.) Isn’t it kind of interesting that today a cross of execution still symbolizes the spiritual freedom that Chris was pondering?

 

What’s a slave’s ransom worth? Chris says that was the question he asked himself as he mused about slavery’s payoff. John Newton does not use the word in his poetry to describe his own thoughts about slavery’s cost, but the price God paid is nevertheless clear. And so, when Chris was on a plane ride and had a coincidental chat with a friend about a movie that would re-tell the stories of the abolitionist heroes in 19^th Century Britain, his brain went into action. The 2007 movie Amazing Grace told the story of William Wilberforce – with the former slave-trader Newton also included – and the decades-long struggle to end slavery’s influence on England’s economy. ‘Ransom’ was the key word in Chris’ refrain, building upon the timelessly classic words that Newton (and an unknown author of one verse) had written over two centuries earlier. Chris says he offered the modified lyrics to the movie-makers, and the rest is history, including its use as one of the movie’s soundtracks. Chris’s friend and minister, Louie Giglio, also apparently may have contributed to the song (he’s listed on some sites as a co-contributor), although exactly what role that was is unclear; perhaps he was a sounding board for Chris’ ideas for the refrain, or helped coax Chris’ thinking about Amazing Grace’s origins. Whatever the case, Chris mentions in one interview that he did not originally intend to add to this enduring hymn, since it was already so great, an attitude that suggests somebody else indeed persuaded his input. That’s not unlike what John Newton must have felt when he created the original hymn’s words, a creation from a ‘wretch’ who was ‘lost’ and ‘blind’, someone who felt unworthy of His grace. A prostrate humility…that seems to be the posture for all who are blessed with the musical talent that helps the rest of us capture the essence of God’s amazing gift.   

 

We’ve been taken hostage. That is implicit in the word ‘ransom’ that Chris Tomlin uses, so something pretty powerful was necessary to break that hold on you and me, in fact extraordinarily so in this case. Usually, one thinks of a ransom that is necessary to free an innocent and implicitly important person who’s been taken hostage. From Newton’s perspective, he was not that innocent nor valuable, however. And yet, God paid the ultimate price, without negotiation. The astonishing part of this divine equation was His love, something no other being in the universe across all time could have added. Could that be where Satan miscalculated, that he thought God would eventually think the freedom for all of us demands too costly a price? And yet, that kind of love is a ‘flood’, Chris reminds us. It envelopes us; somebody might even say we drown in this flood. But in this ocean of God’s love, you and I don’t gasp for air. This love not only frees, it transforms. He’s ‘forever mine’, as John Newton first said. Drink that in.    

 

 

 

See the song’s story, as told by the primary contemporary author(Tomlin), here: https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/articles/history-of-hymns-amazing-grace-my-chains-are-gone

 

See information on one author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Tomlin

 

Information on the song is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See_the_Morning#Amazing_Grace_(My_Chains_Are_Gone)

 

See information on the website of one author here: https://www.christomlin.com/

 

See information on another author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Giglio

Someday – Anonymous

 

It’s just a simple little round song. Picture this: a group of a few dozen teenagers, perhaps standing around a smoky bonfire, out in a field at a campsite. A few adults act as mentors, and this was what they chose to sing – “Someday”. Did the words come out of nowhere? The answer seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it? Perhaps three sub-themes constituted what one or more the adults talked about that night, thus helping to drive what they decided to sing in three verses. When or how the first group decided to sing “Someday” is lost in space, at least until everyone reassembles in the time and place about which they were all thinking when they premiered this little tune. Do you call it heaven, or maybe eternity (see one conception of this place in the picture)? How about paradise, or rapture? What about dreamland, where all of one’s fondest wishes come true, as suggested in a well-known Iowa-based baseball movie? You may not be able to put your finger on this someday with mathematical certainty, but does that mean it’s not going to arrive? It’s a question each person must answer.

 

Was ‘Someday’ in fact at first a campfire song? The answer is ‘could have been’, but does it matter? Lots of songs might have been sung in such a setting, but three ways to coax listeners to walk toward God could be derived from just the 15 words in this jingle. ‘Someday’ could sound rather indefinite, and therefore not too convincing as a way to give a group of people inspiration. Yet, consider a group of early 19^th Century American slaves, whose terrestrial outlook did not allow them much room for glad tidings, at least on this side of eternity. For them, ‘someday’ could have helped gird their inner strength, and tell themselves that there ultimately would be judgement and salvation dispensed by a righteous God. And, though the words of verse 2 might have rung a bit hollow here on earth, they could believe that ‘peace’, ‘joy’, and ‘happiness’ would by necessity make ‘no more sorrow’ a reality in the never-ending day. How many times could they have read about those three words – at least, those who had learned to read a bible, and were permitted to tell others? They could have heard these words repeated hundreds of times, perhaps none more hopeful and encouraging than when He’s called the ‘God of peace’ (Hebrews 13:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Philippians 4:9; Romans 16:20).  How great is it to hear about ‘joy’ like what Jesus promised (such as in John 16:21-22)? Or, how about ‘happiness’ like that which the Master will reward us (Matthew 25:21-23)? With those first two verses in mind, it’s easier to convince hearers with verse three that they ‘gotta be ready when He calls my name’. Could a campfire teacher have emphasized this theme with words by Jesus himself, once again, this time as He was instructing followers about the importance of watchfulness? Four times in one such teaching (Luke 12: 35-48), Jesus uses the word ‘ready’, because no one can predict when He will come.  The wise person who wants what is promised in verse 2 will internalize the need to practice verse 3, and wait expectantly for verse 1’s reality to come true.

 

Put to music what you want your hearers to live out. One could deduce that the first time, and many times thereafter, that ‘Someday’ was sung, this was the objective. What I vocalize can be just pretty sounds. If that’s all they are, perhaps one prophet needs to reappear – Amos (5:23). He said that God called that stuff ‘noise’. Someday…what do you want the one day that will never end to feel like? Do you believe it will sound insincere and empty there? ‘Someday’ wants me to begin practicing like I think that day’s already here. It’ll be full-blown, impossible-to-ignore reality. Gotta get ready.