David Wesley sings a beautiful a cappella medley of ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus / Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus’ and its mind-blowing.
On his official YouTube channel, David Wesley writes, “Both of these classic hymns have been part of my life since childhood. They fit together so well that they were practically begging for a medley/mashup treatment. Taking a 3/4 song and a 4/4 song by transforming them both into a 6/8 doo-wop shuffle was a challenge, but totally worth it.
I’m not sure when I realized it, but I’ve lived within a half-hour drive of the gravesite/memorial for Joseph Scriven’s (lyricist of What a Friend We Have in Jesus) for 14 years! Watch to the end of the video for footage of my visit there.”
Most of the popular hymns were written in great sadness, ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus’ was written in such times.
Joseph Scriven wrote this hymn about the friendship of Jesus, how He comforts us and bears all our burdens. Scriven a native of Dublin, was born in 1820.
What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
As a young man, he was engaged to be married to his longtime love, the wedding date had been fixed but just before the wedding day, his to-be-bride was found accidentally drowned, which threw him into the deepest sorrow.
This heartbreaking situation brought a dependence upon Christ and of the great truth he expressed in his song.
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer.
The Christian hymn ‘Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus’ was originally written by Helen H Lemmel in 1922. The words of the song were inspired from Hebrews 12:2 which says, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
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
Today as David Wesley sings a beautiful rendition of these two classic hymns we feel so encouraged and blessed that we can take all our problems and challenges to a God that hears us and answers us.
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