Give Me Jesus
GIVE ME JESUS 1: In the morning, when I rise In the morning, when I rise In the morning, when I rise Give me Jesus 2: When I am alone When I am alone Oh, when I am alone Give me Jesus 3: Dark midnight was my cry Dark midnight was my cry Dark midnight was my cry Give me Jesus 4: When I come to die When I come to die Oh, when I come to die Give me Jesus
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Give Me Jesus
I went to a friends church a while back. It’s a friendly church and the message was good. At the end of the service, they played the song “Give Me Jesus.”
I hadn’t heard that one for quite a while and it really grabbed ahold of me. I love hymns but there are some contemporary songs that really stick with me. I’ve heard the Fernando Ortega and Jeremy Camp versions of that one and they are awesome.
The lyrics, though, are odd for Christian music. “When I come to die” and “Dark Midnight was my cry” just don’t seem to be typical of the modern music scene. Curious about the songs’ story, I looked up the author. It turns out that we don’t know who wrote it. In fact, it’s not a contemporary song at all.
Surprisingly, I learned that it’s a negro spiritual, sung by slaves in the south. It’s probably more than 200 years old. That’s not very modern, after all.
Slaves didn’t have much to bring happiness into their lives. There was hard labor and much grief. But, there was music. When they could gather at camp meetings or for church services, their songs of faith were lifted up for hours at a time.
Their hymns were songs of deep conviction but there was a darkness and a sadness to them, even while they sang about their hopes and dreams.
“Give Me Jesus” tells the story of a hard life, from the morning (the start of a life in Jesus) through a dark and lonely life on earth, until death: just give me Jesus.
They are the words of a slave crying out to God. It makes sense to me now. It’s a song about a life that promises nothing, owns nothing and expects nothing, but which is solely focused on one thing: Jesus.
Hebrews 12:2
“...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
You and I can only dream about a depth of faith like that. That kind of faith is earned, not given. You can have all that this world has to give, but give me Jesus! Here are the original lyrics, sung by a slave to His God.
