THE PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG

For several years, I served as the song leader in my church. During that time, it was my responsibility to select the music and lead the congregation in the singing every week.

I took that responsibility seriously. The hymns and songs that I selected had to be doctrinally sound, and appropriate for worship with a God-centered worldview. Within those parameters, I tried to select music that would reinforce and support the text and the subject of my pastor’s messages.

Some of us have been singing the hymns for years; the words roll off our lips but the messages often don't engage our minds or penetrate our hearts. With the apostle Paul, I want the congregation to "sing with understanding."

So it has been my practice to select one hymn each week, research it, and then highlight it with a short introductory commentary so that the congregation will be more informed regarding the origin, the author's testimony, or the doctrinal significance of the hymns we sing.

It is my intention here, with this blog, to archive these hymn commentaries for my reference and to make them freely available to other church song leaders. For ease of reference, all the hymn commentaries in this blog will be titled IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Other posts (which will be music ministry related opinion pieces) will be printed in lower case letters.

I know that some of these commentaries contain traces of my unique style, but please feel free to adapt them and use the content any way you can for the edification of your congregation and to the glory of God.

All I ask is that you leave a little comment should you find something helpful.

Ralph M. Petersen

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Sunday, June 10, 2018

****SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER


William Walford was an old, blind man who owned a small novelty shop in Coleshill, England about 200 years ago. Every day he sat and whittled little trinkets and useful objects from pieces of bones that he sold in his shop.

And as he worked, he prayed, and he recited scripture. Even though he had no formal education, he had an incredible memory. He had memorized volumes of scripture that he could quote verbatim. In fact, many of his friends thought he had memorized the entire Bible.

Because he was often called to preach in a rural English church, he composed all his sermons in his head and committed them to memory. 

In 1842, an American pastor, Thomas Salmon, spent some time in Coleshill, England, where he became acquainted with William. 

He recorded this story of what happened one day, while he was visiting the blind pastor:

“…(William recited) two or three pieces (of poetry) which he had composed, and, having no friend at home to commit them to paper, he had laid them up in the storehouse within. 

“Then he asked, ‘How will this do?’ as he (recited) the lines of (another four-stanza poem).

“I rapidly wrote the lines with my pencil, as he uttered them.” 


Three years later Salmon showed it to the editor of the New York Observer and SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER was published in 1845. 


Now, that’s the story, but some mysterious doubts have been raised about the real identity of William Walford. After the poem had been set to music and became well-known, some students of hymnology tried to authenticate his authorship. They could find no one of that name who fit the description given by Salmon. They were able to locate a Rev. William Walford in a place near Coleshill, England, but he was well educated and not blind. Nevertheless, William Walford’s story and authorship are generally not disputed. 

One commenter has noted that the first stanza of this hymn reads like a good, three-point sermon outline; which would be expected from a preacher of the gospel. 

1. It addresses our present condition. In this “world of care,” we all have “seasons of distress and grief.”

2. It points to a remedy; a "SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER." 

3. And it assures us of our hope; we can “escape the tempter’s snare.”

William Walford experienced many trials and difficulties in his life and there are several references to those troubles in his hymn. 

But his remedy was always the same remedy available to all Christians. Whenever we are troubled, we can approach our God in prayer. He always has time to listen and He brings peace to our souls. 

In the fourth stanza (which is omitted from most hymnbooks) is a reference to a strange-sounding place; Mount Pisgah. It was from that mountain, that Moses was able to see the land of Israel before God took him to heaven. The imagery, there, is that one day, we will no longer need times of prayer because we will be in the very presence of our God.

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