Page CXVI / Hymns / Blog

Page CXVI is a project started with the idea of making Hymns accessible and known again. They are some of the richest, most meaningful, and moving pieces of music ever written.

• Father Hear The Prayer We Offer

  Here’s the lyrics to my favorite song off of Hymns IV. We first found this hymns because my brother asked us to play it at his wedding. It’s one of the most beautiful and honest songs I’ve heard. It’s comes from Joshua 1:9 where God says to Joshua ” Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”

  I love this song because the author doesn’t ask God for an easy life, for God to fix their problems or for God to create a utopia, where there is no pain and they have the money to buy the right house and the right car. He acknowledges the reality of the world and how God interacts with it.

  (My wife and I wrote the lyrics to the bridge)
  _____________________________________

  Father Hear The Prayer We Offer
  by Love M Willis 1859

  Father, hear the prayer we offer:
  Nor for ease that prayer shall be,
  But for strength, that we may ever
  Live our lives courageously.

  Not forever in green pastures
  Do we ask our way to be,
  But the steep and rugged pathway
  May we tread rejoicingly.

  Not forever by still waters
  Would we idly, quiet stay;
  But would smite the living fountains
  From the rocks along our way.

  Be our strength in hours of weakness,
  In our wanderings be our Guide;
  Through endeavor, failure, danger,
  Father, be Thou at our side.

  Bridge:
  You came before, beside us you’ll be
  You’ll never leave, beside us you’ll be
  You came before, beside us you’ll be
  You’ll never leave, beside us you’ll be.

  Let our path be bright or dreary,
  Storm or sunshine be our share;
  May our souls in hope unweary
  Make Thy work our ceaseless prayer.

  Tagged: Hymns

  Posted on March 18, 2011 with 31 notes ()

• Hymns III and IV

  Here are the songs that will be on Hymns III and Hymns IV.  Hymns III should be out on November 30th this year.  We’re finishing up vocals and should start the mixing process in September for both records.

  In no particular order:

  Wash Me Clean

  His Eye is On the Sparrow

  Amazing Grace

  Father Hear the Prayers We Offer

  Holy, Holy, Holy

  Be Still My Soul

  Psalm 23

  Be Thou My Vision

  Joyful Joyful

  Divine Invitation

  You Have Redeemed My Soul

  Tis So Sweet

  In The Sweet By and By

  Song of the Saints

  Tagged: Hymns Songs Hymns III Hymns IV Kittens

  Posted on July 27, 2010 ()

• Joy

  When I first wrote, or I should say re-wrote, “Joy” I had no idea the
  wave it would make.  I have received countless emails, questions, and
  comments on this one song, several with the similar theme of “she sure
  does not sound joyful to me!”  I’ve even had people tell me that they
  did not finish the song but skipped it because it sounded too
  depressing and confused them in contrast to the rest of the Hymns-I
  record. If perchance you are someone that has not finished the song
  yet please listen through the end. It would be like starting a story
  and never finishing it.
  
  The first time I played Joy was the night my father passed away.  He
  had a short and painful battle with cancer.  My dad was not perfect
  but he did the best he could with what he had.  A year before he died
  he was diagnosed with dementia.  The day he told me he had cancer he
  said it was a blessing.  To him, cancer was a better way to end his
  story than a mind with no memory of his family or his life.  So as I
  sat at the piano, the only place that felt safe that night to me, the
  weight of loss hit my chest.  I remembered my eyes were blurred with
  tears and I literally began to play the now familiar progression of
  Joy.  I kept cycling through the progression and then, as if it had
  already been written, I began to sing a different melody to a song I
  sang in VBS as a child, “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my
  heart…” The truth is that I was terribly and profoundly sad.  The
  reality of grief had not even entirely hit me yet.  But at the same
  moment I had a deep sense of peace.  He was no longer in pain.  He was
  no longer sick.  He was free from all his ailments and restored.
  Although I still miss him, I know that God has weaved redemption
  through death into my father’s story.  That brings me great joy.  It
  was not until grief became a part of my story that I realized that joy
  is not simply an expression, but an attitude and acknowledgment of the
  deep peace of knowing a Savior.
  
  I believe it is important as a community that wants to comfort the
  weary we allow space for those who are grieving, suffering, and
  experiencing loss to say, “Hey! I am hurting! I am in pain!”  It is
  okay to give them space to figure out what joy means in that time.  

  I now know that you can experience grief and joy simultaneously…and if
  not, that joy can and will come if you allow it to.
  
  I had Joy written without the ending that is on the record for a
  while.  And after I had some time to grieve I remembered the hymn “It
  is Well With My Soul.”  The author of that hymn lost multiple members
  of his immediate family when he wrote those deeply wise words.  It
  seemed appropriate to end “Joy” with this hymn in acknowledgement that
  God brings us peace.  He even brings us joy when it seems and feels
  impossible.

  Tagged: Joy Hymn Hymns Stories Page CXVI I've got the joy joy cancer death music

  Posted on June 10, 2010 with 19 notes ()