Hymn of the Month

HYMN OF THE MONTH FOR NOVEMBER

Shall We Gather at the River
Lift Every Voice and Sing  No. 141

3 Ere we reach the shining river,
Lay we ev’ry burden down;
Grace our spirits will deliver,
And provide a robe and crown. [Refrain]

4 Soon we’ll reach the shining river,
Soon our pilgrimage will cease;
Soon our happy hearts will quiver
With the melody of peace. [Refrain]

Refrain:
Yes, we’ll gather at the river,
The beautiful, the beautiful river;
Gather with the saints at the river
That flows by the throne of God.

Both text and tune of this hymn were written by Baptist minister, Richard Lowry (1826-1899). Although this hymn may be his most famous, he wrote several other popular gospel songs, including the tune for I Need Thee Every Hour (LEVAS No. 192), and the text for We’re Marching to Zion  (LEVAS No. 12).

This hymn is based on Revelation 22:1-5:

• Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing
  from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.
  On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing
  its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
  Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the
  Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and
  his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need
  no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign
  forever and ever.

This text also calls to mind Psalm 46:4-5: There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved.

  Shall We Gather  is perfect for All Saints Sunday, and we will, indeed, sing it on that day. However, it speaks beyond All Saints Sunday. In the refrain, we sing about gathering with the saints before the throne of God, and that notion is not peculiar to All Saints Day, or to this hymn. Charles Wesley wrote a hymn that begins: Let saints on earth in concert sing with those whose work is done; for all the servants of our King in heaven and earth are one. (H1982  No. 526). Moreover, in my favorite line in the Eucharistic Prayer, which is our cue to sing the Sanctus, the celebrant says:  Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven, who for ever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your Name:  After an invitation like that, who could keep from singing?

Lowry wrote this hymn in the summer of 1864. The heat was stifling. The country was in the midst of the Civil War. A fever epidemic was claiming many lives. People were in mourning, and questioning whether we would meet again.  Lowry was contemplating Revelation 22,  and daydreaming of the crystal clear water of the river of life. He mused on the fact that hymn writers had a lot to say about the river of death, but little about the river of life, that proceeds out of the throne of God.  For example, Wesley’s hymn Let Saints on Earth in Concert Sing (H1982  No. 526) speaks of the river of death, saying we are divided from those who have gone before by the narrow stream of death. Wesley’s hymn concludes with:  Bid Jordan’s narrow stream divide, and bring us safe to heaven.

According to Lowry, when he sat down at the organ, “simply to give vent to the pent up emotions of the heart, the words and music of the hymn began to flow out, as if by inspiration:—‘Shall we gather at the river, Where bright angel feet have trod?’”

In the first stanza, this hymn asks a very big question.   Therefore, when we sing it, we should focus intently on the question:  Shall we gather at the river, where bright angel feet have trod; with its crystal tide forever flowing by the throne of God? And then, in the refrain, comes the answer,  where the operative word is YES! After being reminded of Saint John’s lovely image of heaven, who could not answer with a resounding YES! We’ll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river. Gather with the saints at the river that flows by the throne of God!

 The second stanza describes the joy and peace of heaven. The third stanza speaks of the Christian’s good fortune even in this life: laying down our burdens, receiving God’s grace, and looking forward to our robe and crown in heaven. The notion of laying down our burdens comes from Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28:  “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Yet, this message even predated the coming of the Messiah, for example, in Psalm 55:22:  Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. He never will suffer the righteous to fall. He is at thy right hand. The image of laying down our burdens by the river appears in other gospel songs and in spirituals. In Ain’t Gonna Study War No More, we sing: Gonna lay down my burden, down by the riverside, to study war no more.

In the fourth stanza, we daydream about the joys of heaven, when our pilgrimage will end in peace and happiness. The longing for heaven is apparent in the use of the word “soon” to begin each phrase, with each “soon” getting a little more intense than the one before.

All pervading throughout the hymn is the image of water, which is a normal and necessary part of life. It is also such a big part of our Christian heritage:  the flood, the Red Sea, the Jordan River, the water of life, baptism, just to name a few. We probably all have sat on beautiful riverbanks, or paddled or swam in rivers, and that is a wonderful experience. Nonetheless, being at the river that flows by the throne of God is something we have yet to experience. Just stop and think about it. It takes my breath away.

The hymn tune name is HANSON PLACE, named after the Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York, where Lowry was pastor at the time he wrote it. If you go to Brooklyn, you can still see this church, which was designated a New York City Landmark in 1970, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. However, since 1963, it has been a Seventh-Day Adventist Church. There is a monument to Robert Lowry at the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Brooklyn.

— Carolyn Parmenter, Music Director