Turn your eyes upon Jesus

At last Sunday’s Combined Service, I introduced a new song on video. Its title was familiar: Turn your eyes upon Jesus. The first verse was very familiar:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, 

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace

However, from verse 2 onwards we discovered that we were in new territory. There are 3 new verses which tell the Easter story, and a simple Chorus which we had never heard before:

Jesus, to You we lift our eyes, Jesus, our glory and our prize

We adore You, behold You, our Savior ever true

Oh Jesus, we turn our eyes to You

I will use it once again this Sunday (6^th April) and our pianists will learn it. Eventually we will sing it live in both Centres.

Some of you loved this new song. Others preferred the “original” version. However, when we look at the original version we are in for a surprise. Most people know the words “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, etc.”. We usually just sing those as a stand-alone song. But that isn’t the original version. Our familiar words are actually the chorus to a hymn called “O soul, are you weary and troubled?”.

The hymn was written by a woman named Helen Howarth Lemmel. She was born in England in 1864 and died in Seattle, Washington State, in 1961. The daughter of a Methodist Minister, she was a gifted singer. She wrote more than 500 hymns, poems, and a children’s book. She became a vocal music teacher at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. Among her works are a hymnal used by evangelist Billy Sunday for over a decade. 

Her hymn was inspired by a tract Helen read containing these words: “So then turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face and you will find the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness”. That tract may well have borrowed from Hebrews 12:2 which states, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” Helen’s words “Turn your eyes upon Jesus” became the chorus to her 1922 hymn, the first verse of which says:

O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see?

There’s light for a look at the Saviour, And life more abundant and free!

Let’s examine the history. Inspired by Hebrews 12, someone wrote a tract. In 1922 Helen read this tract and composed a hymn. Its chorus then became a stand-alone song. That song was then used in 2019 to create another song, one we sing in 2025. So, for a little over a century, God has been at work inspiring men and women: with words from Scripture, words (in the tract) and with music and song (all 3 versions). Why? Because God is inviting people in each and every age to “Turn your eyes upon Jesus”. Whether we read it or sing it, may we all do it!

With hope and joy,

Rev. Frank (Van Der Korput), Supply Minister