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 very modern hymns.
Today’s song is Jesus, Draw Me Ever Nearer from 2001.
I’ve never heard this one sung in church. It has a nice Irish flavour to it. The lyrics were written by an American lady, Margaret Becker. She wrote it from a personal context of suffering and trust, reflecting on walking with Christ through trials. And the tune was written by Keith Getty, an Irishman. The first video features Moya Brennan, who went to be with the Lord this week.
It’s based on numerous Scriptural passages. I’ll choose this one:
John 15:4
Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I love the first verse:
Jesus draw me ever nearer
As I labour through the storm.
You have called me to this passage,
and I’ll follow, though I’m worn.
I’m never at ease with people who promote Christianity by giving the impression that it’ll solve all your earthly problems. It will solve your greatest problem – where you’ll spend eternity. But you can see from the New Testament that life down here isn’t easy – not for Christ, nor his disciples, nor us. But it’s a comfort for me to know that God has a purpose in my trials and that He is with me in them.
A find hymns, such as this one, a great help for prayer. When I grew up as a Catholic, saying your prayers was a little like a chant. You’d say the “Hail Mary”, but you’d rarely focus on the words. Then, when I became an evangelical Christian, we’d pray in our own words. But it isn’t always easy to find the words. So, hymn lyrics often help me in my prayers. And of course, God knows your needs before you even declare them in any case. Yet He does ask us to pray. I like what Jesus says about prayer here:
Matthew 6:7-8
7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Jesus immediately follows this by The Lord’s Prayer (Our Father), as a sample prayer – but again, when I was growing up we’d often recite it without thinking about the words. And even now, I often sing hymns without really taking in what I’m singing. Maybe it’s not always vital that you concentrate on all the specific words. For example, when I met my girlfriend off the train when I was young, we’d chat away, but the fact that we were together was more important than what we talked about. And that sense of togetherness with God is important. But hymns work in all sorts of ways. We can even analyze them at home and sing them in church without worrying too much about concentrating on all the lyrics.
Anyway, here are some other versions of today’s hymn:
Hibernia Gospel 