I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise. Today it’s the turn of the old hymns.
Today’s song is In the Garden from 1912.
1 I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
Refrain:
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
2 He speaks, and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing;
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing. [Refrain]
3 I'd stay in the garden with Him
Tho' the night around me be falling;
But He bids me go; thro' the voice of woe,
His voice to me is calling. [Refrain]
When I think of the title “In the Garden”, I think of the Bob Dylan song from 1980, which is completely different.
But the older “In the Garden” has a familiar ring to it. I thought that it was an Elvis song, but it goes all the way back to 1912. It gained widespread popularity through Billy Sunday’s evangelistic campaigns in the 1910s and 1920s.
It’s not one that you’d sing as a congregation much. It’s more of a solo song. And what’s it actually about? I think it’s about the experience of Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18) when she first met the risen Christ. She initially mistook him for a gardener, because she saw him in a garden. Then she saw that it was Jesus Himself.
But how does that relate to us today?
Well, didn’t Jesus promise to be with us always? Theologically, it’s often said that the Holy Spirit manifests God’s presence to us. So, we can feel the closeness of Jesus. From one perspective, when we read the gospels and spend much time meditating on Christ, we feel His presence. I can think of my parents and many people that I’ve known earlier in life and somehow feel their presence. But that’s because they’re deep in my memory, which makes them real to me.
But with Jesus, it’s more than that. It isn’t just a subjective experience. God by His very nature is omnipresent – present everywhere. And we should sometimes expect to feel Him manifesting His presence in a special way. And even if we don’t feel much, we can be sure that He is with us. But on these rare occasions, when He manifests Himself very vividly, He can feel more real than anything. I dreamt that I was in the presence of Jesus on two occasions, and I would so love to have that experience again. But until we’re actually with Him in heaven, He asks us to exercise faith and reach out to Him. And that isn’t always easy. As I write this, no-one is reading it. Yet, I hope that people will read it when I publish the post. So right now, I have some kind of sense of your presence.
And as I pray, I can’t fully experience God listening to me, but I’m confident that He is listening. And at times, I do feel a more vivid sense of His presence than other times. And today’s hymn helps me to do that.
Anyway, here are some other versions of “In the Garden”:
Hibernia Gospel 