Isaiah 35:10 “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion (Jerusalem) with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads …”
Song: He Keeps Me Singing
Chorus: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest name I know,
Fills my every longing, Keeps me singing as I go.
Line 5. Soon He’s coming back to welcome me
Far beyond the starry sky;
I shall flight my wing to worlds unknown,
I shall reign with Him on high. [Then Chorus]
(Luther Burgess Bridgers, Sing His Praise)
As I was driving to work, this spontaneous memory song (chorus and 5th line came to me last Saturday morning on Sept. 25th. I really sang this song out loud (off key maybe), but it felt so good and I had more energy at the end of the day. I was looking for Bible verse to match the song, but I couldn’t find the right one. Thought came to me. How old was the song? Why was the song written? I began searching and found this song with verse from “Then Sings My Soul,” by Robert J. Morgan who wrote 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories. I am summarizing the story of Luther Bridgers.
Luther Bridgers grew up in North Carolina and he began preaching at age seventeen while attending Asbury College in Kentucky. He had a wonderful wife and three precious boys. In 1910, Luther, age 26, took his family to stay at his wife’s parents while Luther was going on a preaching trip alone. One evening a nearby neighbor, was not able to sleep, rose in the night and looked out his window. He saw the flames, ran across the field, he gave the alarm, but the house was already on fire. Luther’s in-laws and he escaped the fire. Luther tried to re-enter the house, but his neighbors had to restrain him since the house was already collapsing from the flames. Luther was overwhelmed with grief at the lost of his wife and his three sons. It took him a long time to recover from his depression and he remembered the Bible’s promise of “songs in the night.” Several months later, he wrote both words and music. God gave Luther Bridgers the ability to keep singing. In 1914, Luther married again and resumed his ministry until he passed away in Atlanta in 1948.
After reading this story, I felt a little shocked how the song was written. It was not something exciting. It was something tragedy and how God helped him. This is something to think about if you are going through something. May God help us to have courage, “He keeps me singing.”
