We sing a lot of hymns at Redeemer. We sing other kinds of songs as well, but we give hymns (particularly the historic ones) priority, and our bands do a great job. Yesterday we again sang, "I Need Thee Every Hour." I hope you know it, and sing it. The hymn was written in 1872 by Annie Hawks. She was a thirty-something wife and mother of three when during the course of a typical summer day God impressed her with her need and Jesus' sufficiency. She said, "When in the midst of my daily cares at home, I was so filled with the sense of the nearness to my Master that, wondering how one could live without Him, either in joy or pain, these words, 'I Need Thee Every Hour,' flashed into my mind. Seating myself by the open window in the balmy air of the bright June day, I caught up my pencil and the words were soon committed to paper, almost as they are being sung now." (via)
Years later, with the passing of her husband, Mrs. Hawks wrote, "I did not understand at first why this hymn had touched the great throbbing heart of humanity. It was not until long after, when the shadow fell over my way, the shadow of a great loss, that I understood something of the comforting power in the words which I had been permitted to give out to others in my hour of sweet serenity and peace." (via)
I enjoy Andrew Laparra's album, Rise UP Dead Men, and his cover of the classic hymn. You can check it all out below.
