"Yours Forever, Amen"

It's been nearly two years since a crazy morning of software development drove me leave my house with a head full of chaos and return having written a new song without ever picking up an instrument.

On the morning of March 8, 2016, I was indeed struggling with an excessive amount of mental noise—stress at work and general busy-ness in every facet of life—and wanted to talk a walk in the woods to clear my thoughts.  There on the walking trails at nearby Pharr Mill Park, I was able to walk and enjoy nature and commune with God, and I found myself praying through the prayer that Jesus gave as an example to his disciples, the one most folks refer to as "The Lord's Prayer".  But I was blessed in that moment to have a melody form in my thoughts as well.  So I came home from that little detour feeling much refreshed, and scribbled down the essentially fully-formed song that had been captured in bits and pieces on my phone's voice recorder app while walking the park's trails!

In the two years since, I've been blessed to be able to share the song—which I titled "Yours Forever, Amen"—with various audiences and accompanied by various wonderful musicians.  One of my favorite ways to present the song is to have the text of Jesus' prayer read in chunks over the song's instrumental interludes.

So here's "Yours Forever, Amen", with those biblical readings added in quotes:

Yours Forever, Amen

"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven."

Oh, Abba Father, High King of Heaven,
Holy, holy, is Your Name.
Your kingdom come and Your will be done in
Heaven above and earth the same.

"Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us."

Oh, Abba Father, High King of Heaven,
Give us daily all we need.
And please forgive us, as we forgive those,
Who, like us, caused Your Son to bleed.

Yours forever is the kingdom!  Yours forever is the power!
Yours forever is the glory, amen!
Yours forever is the kingdom!  Yours forever is the power!
Yours forever is the glory, amen!  Amen.

"And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil."

Oh, Abba Father, High King of Heaven,
Rescue us from the evil one,
And lead us far from every temptation —
This bride keep spotless for Your Son.

Yours forever is the kingdom!  Yours forever is the power!
Yours forever is the glory, amen!
Yours forever is the kingdom!  Yours forever is the power!
Yours forever is the glory, amen!  Amen.
Yours forever, amen.
Yours forever, amen.

"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.  Amen."

I've included here, too, the hastily-recorded demo I assembled back in 2016.  It doesn't have the textual readings because, if I recall correctly, that idea didn't occur to me until after the recording was made.  But either way, I hope you enjoy it.

"Where You Lead (Father, Hear the Prayer We Offer)"

There are a great number of wonderful Christian hymns which are passing into obscurity in large segments of the world's geography.  (When Fanny Crosby writes 8,000+ hymns herself, it's easy to understand how a few of these things could go unnoticed!)  These songs offer solid theology in their lyrics, but are often musically inaccessible to modern worshipers.  I was recently inspired by the folks at Sovereign Grace Music to do my part my preserve the important parts of these songs — their beautiful, poetic words — while enjoying the liberty to set those words to a different (even original) musical arrangement.

So I've taken my first crack at this.  At my church, we are beginning an emphasis on the topic of prayer.  So I searched the collection of public domain songs (those whose copyrights had expired) in the CCLI SongSelect database for songs with a prayer theme.  I found in that list the hymn "Father, Hear the Prayer We Offer".  This song was written around 1859 by Love Maria Whitcomb Willis.  It appears to have gone through some minor edits over time, but I took the version that SongSelect presented to me and set its words to a simple melody.  I then added a short chorus for summary and variety (trying to maintain the authorial voice of the original hymn).

The following lyrics are the ones I used; the italicized bits are my little addition.

Where You Lead (Father, Hear the Prayer We Offer)

Father, hear the prayer we offer.
Not for ease our prayer shall be,
But for strength that we may ever
Live our lives courageously.

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

Let not these words ring hollow,
This we plead.
Lord, make us brave to follow
Where you lead.

Not for ever by still waters
Would we idly rest and stay,
But would strike the living fountains
From the rocks along our way.

Be our strength in hours of weakness.
In our wanderings be our guide.
Through endeavour and failure and danger,
Father be there at our side.

Let not these words ring hollow,
This we plead.
Lord, make us brave to follow
Where you lead.

Father, hear the prayer we offer.
Not for ease our prayer shall be,
But for strength that we may ever
Live our lives courageously.

Almost immediately after recording a demo of the song (which you can listen to below), I learned that there was another verse to the original hymn.  So in live settings going forward, I'll use the following verse as the final one instead of repeating the first stanza:

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.

Here's the aforementioned demo recording: