Music in Times of Hardship

Psalm 90:14-15 "Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all of our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble."

Floods of sorrow and hardship that would have drowned a lesser soul, released a song of hope and Christian Joy in the heart of reverend Luther Burgess Bridgers. During the early years if his ministry God richly blessed him and his wife and three precious boys were born into the family. In 1910, his popularity was growing and he received and accepted an invitation to conduct a two-week series of evangelistic services in another state. Leaving his family to the safe-keeping of his wife's immediate relatives, he kissed them goodbye and left. Two glorious weeks later, the services closed and many a sinner was converted and many a saint was strengthened. He was wonderfully used by God and was at the peak of popularity,,, then that very night, he received a phone call. A disastous fire had completely consumed the house of his father in law and taken the lives of his wife and his three sons. It was at this time that he wrote the words and tune to a song very familiar to us today...

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.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest name I know,
Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go.

The third stanza pointed to the momentary times of hardship, but he last looked to an eternal future.

Though sometimes he leads through waters deep,
Trials fall across the way,
Though sometimes the paths seem rough and steep
See his footprints all the way.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest name I know,
Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go.