Hymns: Knowing You (All I Once Held Dear)

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 in-between hymns.

Today’s song is Knowing You (All I Once Held Dear) from the 1993.

Back in 1993, this was one of the new hymns that I used to sneer at 😀. I’m pleased that I’ve learned to like it nowadays. It’s nostalgic, but it also helps me to worship. Some of these hymns feel a bit like romantic songs, but romance is often used as a metaphor for Christian love in the Scripture. Some folk emphasize having a sense of awe in worship, but not all worship in the Psalms etc. have that mood. Some are more about dancing for joy or enjoying God’s love.

Here’s an Old Testament prophecy that might have helped to inspire the hymn:

Jeremiah 31:34
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
    or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”

The song is about knowing the Lord. When we commit our lives to Christ, we have a personal relationship with Him. Other people can be helpful, but we’re not utterly dependent on other people to reach God on our behalf. Is Jeremiah 31:34 about the New Testament era or the more distance future? Perhaps the latter, but the New Testament era made personal faith (as opposed to cultural traditions) much more widespread. But even in the Old Testament, particularly in the Psalms, we can listen to people who had personal faith.

The Apostle Paul shifted his focus from his cultural religion to a true and living relationship with Jesus – so did I.

Philippians 3:7-11
⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

Here are some other performances: