One Man's Big Fizzer

I recently acquired a Nathan Tasker CD, the reason being that at the Equip Conference this year Jane Saunders sang "Living Word" from that CD, and then recently that same song was played during a church service I attended, after a sermon on "The Holy Spirit and Word", so I just decided I needed it. It's a great song. On a bonus CD that comes with this CD Nathan sings "I heard the voice of Jesus say". I love that hymn, but to my great disappointment he has changed the tune. He wrote the new tune the day his grandmother died so obviously it means something to him and so be that, but I don't like it so much. Perhaps because one of my oldest, bestest friends and I grew up playing the flute in our local church and this hymn was one of our favourites - and we used to harmonise beautifully (or so we thought) on the old tune.

Some old hymns do well with new tunes, and some, well, some of us are just stuck on the old tunes. But one hymn, which has been written in every omer of manna I have ever had (I took up the habit of calling my sporadic journals that over the years) because I loved the words definitely needed a new tune (reminder: this blog contains my opinions only). I came across it (the new tune that is) in Sweden and promptly ordered the CD from the Reformed University Fellowship in the US. The hymn, which I come back to time and time again (it's more personal than congregational I think), needs to be written in this omer of manna. The author, George Matheson, had his own big fizzer (see the history link below), out of which he wrote this:

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

O Love that will not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe,

That in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,

I yield my flickering torch to thee;

My heart restores its borrowed ray,

That in thy sunshine's blaze its day

May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,

I cannot close my heart to thee;

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And feel the promise is not vain,

That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,

I dare not ask to fly from thee;

I lay in dust life's glory dead,

And from the ground there blossoms red

Life that shall endless be.

You can see the piano music for the new tune here and it's worth reading the history of the hymn (and getting past the atrocious grammar of the write up) here.