Phillip Bliss
Ephesians 1:5-10
He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
I Will Sing of My Redeemer
1. I will sing of my Redeemer, and His wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross He suffered, from the curse to set me free.
Refrain:
Sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer, with His blood He purchased me,
On the cross He sealed my pardon, aid the debt, and made me free
2. I will tell the wondrous story, how my lost estate to save,
In His boundless love and mercy, He the ransom freely gave. Refrain
3. I will praise my dear Redeemer, His triumphant pow’r I’ll tell,
How the victory He giveth Over sin, and death, and hell. Refrain
4. I will sing of my Redeemer, and His heav’nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me, Son of God with Him to be. Refrain
Phillip Paul Bliss, 1876
We spend much of our time thinking Faith is a private matter, something to be kept bottled up. In normal times this might have been a comfortable place for the average Christian to live but historically it was not easy to keep the Christian Faith bottled up. From the very beginning, Christians possessed a sense of deep urgency and tended the fire in their belly. The Roman Empire thought through indifference, or outright persecution, if might control the Faith. It was wrong. The Church survived the Fall of Rome, the Dark Ages, the Crusades, the Black Plague; even the Reformation, and grew in spite of danger, toils and snares. But these are not most times, today we face pandemic, economic pressure, political polemic and outright derision from the world. Again, we face the deep urgency of our times and the need to tend the fire in our belly.
Phillip Bliss was an Evangelical song leader. His greatest ambition in life was to work with the Chicago evangelist, Dwight Moody. In 1875, Bliss wrote the tune for one of the most famous of American hymns, “It is Well with My Soul” – written by a Chicago businessman named Horatio Spafford about the death of his family on an ocean voyage. When it was published, Moody invited Bliss, who at the time was teaching music in Ohio, to come to Chicago and join his ministry. Bliss and his wife left their two young children in the care of a relative, and boarded the train for Chicago, but on the way, a major snow storm blocked the tracks and derailed the train. Both Bliss and his wife lost their lives.
Bliss never got to Chicago, but his trunk did, and it contained his most recent hymn; “I Will Sing of My Redeemer”, which Moody used. During his short life Bliss was second only to Fanny Crosby as an American hymn writer. In the midst of death, Bliss, like saints before him, found voice to express the urgency of his times and the fire in his belly.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, give us voice in these trying times to sing of our redemption and the hope that is ours through your life, death and resurrection. Make us witnesses to the Faith. Amen.
A favorite version of this hymn from Fernando Ortega: