This week’s video presents the hymn, “He Keeps Me Singing.” Luther Bridgers wrote the lyrics and composed the music in 1910. Bridgers was born in 1884 in Margarettesville, North Carolina. His father was a pastor and conducted revival meetings in the early 1900s, and Luther was often seen helping out. Luther met his wife Sarah while attending Asbury College in Willmore, Kentucky. They married and had three sons. He pastored a church in Perry, Florida for a couple years before leaving the position to become an itinerate pastor.
Luther was a gifted singer and wrote a number of hymns, the most famous being “He Keeps Me Singing.” Just one year following his writing of this hymn, his wife and children were visiting her parents in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, where they were killed in a house fire. Luther continued on with his ministry, preaching and singing, with the words he had written having greater meaning to him. He eventually remarried and had a son with his second wife, Aline. He participated in missionary efforts during the First World War, throughout Europe and Russia. Later, in the 1930’s and 1940’s he pastored several churches in Atlanta, Georgia.
There’s within my heart a melody—
Jesus whispers sweet and low,
“Fear not, I am with thee—peace, be still,”
In all of life’s ebb and flow.
All my life was wrecked by sin and strife,
Discord filled my heart with pain;
Jesus swept across the broken strings,
Stirr’d the slumb’ring chords again.
Feasting on the riches of His grace,
Resting ‘neath His shelt‘ring wing,
Always looking on His smiling face—
That is why I shout and sing.
Tho sometimes He leads thru waters deep,
Trials fall across the way,
Tho sometimes the path seems rough and steep,
See His footprints all the way.
Soon He’s coming back to welcome me
Far beyond the starry sky;
I shall wing my flight to worlds unknown,
I shall reign with Him on high.
Refrain:
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus—
Sweetest name I know,
Fills my ev’ry longing,
Keeps me singing as I go.
17 Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Habakkuk 3:17-18
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.
Ephesians 5:15-21
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Beautiful, just what I needed!