I was asked recently to identify a favorite hymn. The task was harder than I expected. I love music and I especially love to sing. Music is my heart language; hymns and praise songs help me pray. How could I possibly name a favorite?
I considered the songs I’ve been singing to my son as a part of his bedtime routine since he was an infant. I mostly choose hymns for which I know multiple verses by heart. As a child, whenever I would struggle to sleep, my parents would play the “Hymns” and “Hymns II” albums by 2nd Chapter of Acts, and over time, those particular hymns – from “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing” to “Great is Thy Faithfulness” – embedded themselves in my soul.
But the hymn I most delight to sing to my son is “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need” by Isaac Watts (1674-1748). Unlike the hymns of my childhood, this one was introduced to me in young adulthood, as I sang a choral version of the song set to the familiar tune RESIGNATION. Not only did I fall in love with the melody, but the lyrics were striking to me. It’s a poetic interpretation of the 23rd Psalm. Watts describes “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” like this:
There would I find a settled rest,
While others go and come;
No more a stranger, nor a guest
But like a child at home.
I learned this hymn in a season of my life in which I felt unmoored. I was 23, living in Hollywood, far from my family and close friends. I felt like a stranger, even in familiar contexts like a church choir. My worldview was being challenged and upended and reshaped in this formative season — I was far from settled. The notion of finding the kind of rest that a child feels at home was a comfort to me, even as it felt out of reach for my angsty young adult self.
I’m no longer an angsty 23-year-old. I have caught myself in moments of centeredness, though settled rest still feels just out of reach. I continue to sing this hymn to my son because it describes my deepest desires for him: that he would know Jesus as a good shepherd who supplies his needs, that the notion of dwelling in God’s house would bring comfort rather than fear or apathy, that he would find centeredness in an unsettled world. I want our home to be a place of safety and security for him, but I mostly want him to find that kind of settled rest in God.
Singing hymns to my son is a way that I pray for him. Poetry and melody weave together to express what my words haltingly do — my hopes and dreams for him, my hopes and dreams for myself.
RACHEL YOUNG is the associate pastor of spiritual formation at Clear Lake Presbyterian Church, in Houston, Texas. She is married to Josh, who also serves on staff at Clear Lake Presbyterian as the director of contemporary worship and media.
