Scripture Verse

He was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, Lord, save me! Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. You of little faith, He said, why did you doubt? Matthew 14:29–31

Introduction

portrait
Avis M. Christiansen
(1895–1985)

Words: Av­is M. Chris­tian­sen, 1916.

Music: Hal­dor Lil­le­nas (🔊 pdf nwc).

Lillenas orig­in­al­ly wrote the tune for a song by Al­fred Bar­rett, Let It Be You and I. The tune made its way to Ar­thur McKee, but Mc­Kee didn’t care for the lyr­ics, & asked Chris­tian­sen to try her hand at writ­ing new words. The re­sult was pub­lished in 1916 in Ta­ber­na­cle Prais­es (ed­it­ed by McKee). Lil­le­nas was­n’t happy about the change in lyr­ics, but ev­en­tu­al­ly ac­cept­ed them when the song be­came po­pu­lar.

Lyrics

Out of the depths to the glo­ry above,
I have been lift­ed in won­der­ful love;
From ev­ery fet­ter my spir­it is free,
For Je­sus has lift­ed me!

Refrain

Jesus has lift­ed me!
Jesus has lift­ed me!
Out of the night into glo­ri­ous light,
Yes, Je­sus has lift­ed me!

Out of the world in­to hea­ven­ly rest,
Into the land of the ran­somed and blessed,
There in the glo­ry with Him I shall be,
For Je­sus has lift­ed me!

Refrain

Out of my­self into Him I ad­ore,
There to hide in His love ev­er­more;
Through end­less ag­es His glo­ry to see,
My Je­sus has lift­ed me!

Refrain

illustration
Christ Walks on Water
Ivan Aivazovsky, 1888