My Hope is in the Lord

I was trying to figure out a song to go with the beginning of the New Year. I was still thinking about the two sides of God which help us to focus on the hope we have as we face the New Year.  The song My Hope is in the Lord came to mind. 

Lyrics

My hope is in the Lord
Who gave Him-self for me
And paid the price
Of all my sin at Cal-va-ry.

CHORUS:
For me He died;
For me He lives,
And everlasting life
And light He free-ly gives.

VERSE 2:
No merit of my own
His anger to suppress
My only hope is found
In Jesus’ righteousness

(REPEAT CHORUS)

VERSE 3:
And now for me He stands
Before the Father’s throne
He shows His wounded hands
And names me as His own

(REPEAT CHORUS)

VERSE 4:
His grace has planned it all
‘Tis mine but to believe
And recognize His work of love
And Christ receive

Author and History

American Norman J. Clayton, was a church organist since age 12.  He worked as a builder in New York. Mr. Clayton also started his own publishing house called Gospel Songs. This was his focus in music, to write Gospel songs of which he wrote a good number.  Hymntime maintains a list of the songs he created.   It was important to him that his music be biblically based and to that end, he memorized large quantities of scripture. 

Pondering This Song

I like to write poetry, and I try to make them biblically based for the most part.  Not always, some are just for fun.  I have written songs in the past but I haven’t memorized huge quantities of scripture.   I tend to look up the verses that I want.

When I consider his dedication to making sure that all his songs were biblical, it humbles me.  It is so easy for me to just look up what I want when perhaps I should be working harder at not having to look them up. To… not depend on technology so much but rather to hide God’s word more firmly inside of my heart.