Sweet Hour of Prayer
A blind lay preacher wrote a wonderful poem on prayer... or did he? There is some mystery behind today's Friday Classic Hymn - but in the end, this is wonderful hymn reminding us of the amazing worth of taking time to pray.
Welcome back to another Friday Classic Hymn. I'm preaching on prayer at my church at the moment (I'll put a link to the sermons below in case you want to check them out), and looking for songs about prayer, I came across today's Friday Classic. What a sweet song and what a meaningful song about the importance of that time in prayer that we all need as Christians. I've grown to really like it as I've learnt it over the last few days, and I'm looking forward to singing it in church this Sunday.
Do you know the song "Sweet Hour of Prayer"? Does it mean something to you? I'd never heard it before and I don't think it's a popular one here in South Africa at all, but maybe in your part of the world this is an important hymn and one that is sung a lot. Please share your comments, your stories and your memories of this hymn down below in the comments—that would be great.
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The Story Behind "Sweet Hour of Prayer"
The song is attributed to William Walford, who lived in Coleshill, Warwickshire, in England and was a lay preacher in the Congregational Church there. He was born in the 1770s, but it was in the 1840s that his minister, Thomas Salmon, stopped by his shop one day. Instead of just being treated to the normal things around the shop that he used to show his minister when he arrived, Walford had a new poem about prayer that he'd written. He asked his minister to write down the words as he spoke them out, and he spoke out the words of this beautiful poem.
Why did he speak them out and not just write them out? Because Walford was blind. According to a book called Hymns and Hymn Writers of the Church, Walford was a very intelligent man. He'd memorised whole sections of Scripture, and his sermons were very interesting. People loved to hear him recite words that he had remembered and memorised, and he had the reputation, in fact, of knowing the whole Bible off by heart.
A few years later, Reverend Salmon was over in New York and he knew the editor of the New York Observer. He showed him this poem and it was subsequently published in this newspaper. After that, it was pretty much forgotten until a man named William Bradbury, a famous hymn writer, decided to put some music to it. The same man, by the way, who wrote the music for "Jesus Loves Me" and "Just as I Am" and many other famous hymns. He wrote this beautiful melody to the song and it became a very famous and favourite hymn in that part of the world.
But there's a twist in the story, because later on somebody else claimed that this whole thing about a blind preacher is all false and made up. William Reynolds wrote a book called Hymns of Our Faith and in his research couldn't find any record of a blind preacher named William Walford living in that part of England in those years. However, there was a Congregational minister in those years called William Wilford, who wasn't blind but who wrote some wonderful books on prayer, including one called The Manner of Prayer. Reynolds thinks that maybe the minister going over to the States threw in this little exaggeration about this man being blind to make it more compelling to the person who he wanted to publish the words.
Nobody knows for sure, but whoever it was that wrote this song seemed to understand prayer in a beautiful way. So let's take a look at the words that he wrote and see how it can inform our prayer lives.
What Do the Lyrics of "Sweet Hour of Prayer" Mean?
Today most hymnals have three verses, but I found online a four-verse version, so I'm going to take you through all four verses, which I think are the original.
Verse 1
"Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer,"
Just stop there for a second. Hour—not minutes. Do we spend enough time in prayer? Do we spend an hour in prayer or more, or do we just take a few moments to pray here and there?
In the sermon series that I'm preaching at the moment at my church, I spoke last week about the hour of prayer, when you set aside time to pray. This Sunday I'm going to speak about praying as you go, on the go, praying without ceasing as Paul says it. But it has to be both. There needs to be the hour of prayer where you spend time focusing on God, and then you need to keep praying the whole day.
For Walford, the hour of prayer where he sat and spent time with God was just sweet, beautiful, the sweetest part of His day. I wonder if that's true for you? Is it a sweet hour that you spend time with God? I hope so.
"Sweet hour of prayer, that calls me from a world of care,"
It's about stepping away from the cares of the world for a time.
"And bids me at my Father's throne make all my wants and wishes known."
I love this. You can come to your Father's throne and just pour your heart out. You don't have to only pray for pious things, but make all your wants and wishes known to God in prayer.
"In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief, and oft escaped the tempter's snare, by thy return, sweet hour of prayer."
At points in your life where you're feeling distressed or full of grief, prayer is the way to find relief for your soul. That sweet hour of prayer is a very important way to get your soul into a state of peace and rest. Of course, when temptations come, as he said, the tempter's snare can be avoided through prayer. If you're living a prayerful life, you have peace and you have power. Beautiful words.
Verse 2
"Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, the joys I feel, the bliss I share."
I wonder if that's your experience of prayer—joyful and a blissful time?
"Of those whose anxious spirits burn with strong desires for thy return."
Part of His prayer is burning with desire for Christ's return. I love this great relationship. Do you see how this is a relational thing for Him? It's not just reciting prayers, but it is His heart burning with joy and bliss as He spends time with His Saviour.
"With such I hasten to the place where God my Saviour shows His face."
This is where God reveals Himself—in the place of prayer.
"And gladly take my station there, and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer."
Do you gladly take your station at your place of prayer? We're going to be watching War Room at the end of our series on prayer at our church. If you've never watched that film, go and watch it—it's such a good film about the power of prayer. She makes for herself a little war room, a little closet that becomes her place to pray, and she gladly takes her station there.
Do you have a place where you gladly go to take your time of prayer and to wait for God? We spend that time waiting for God to speak. We don't just speak, speak, speak, speak. We spend time in silence, allowing Him to speak back and use His Word to show us what He might be saying.
Verse 3
"Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, thy wings shall my petition bear."
That's a picture of our prayers going up to God. You don't have to think of Him as far off and our prayers going off on wings to Him—just picture God hearing your prayer right here and now.
"To Him whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul to bless."
As we sit and wait for Him in prayer, His truth and faithfulness blesses us, and we leave different to how we started.
"And since He bids me seek His face, believe His Word and trust His grace, I'll cast on Him my every care, and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer."
I love this. God bids us—He invites us—to come and seek His face, to believe in Him and trust in Him as we spend this time. We can go to Him and cast our cares upon Him, turn them over to Him, let them go to Him, wait for Him in that hour of prayer as we spend time in His presence. I love these words.
Verse 4
"Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, may I thy consolation share."
Can I share in some of Your comfort and consolation as I spend time in prayer?
"Till from Mount Pisgah's lofty height, I view my home and take my flight."
Mount Pisgah is where Moses in Deuteronomy stood up on top of this mountain, overlooked the Promised Land, and God said to him, "That's it, that's where it is, but unfortunately you're not going to make it there." Moses died there on that mountain. The songwriter is saying, when I stand on that mountain just about to die, I'll have a look at my home—which in this case he's saying is heaven, which I'm about to enter into, the Promised Land—and I'll take my flight.
"This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise to seize the everlasting prize, and shout while passing through the air, 'Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer.'"
I love this verse. He's saying there's going to come a time when I drop this flesh and I'm taken away to be with God, and in that time I won't need prayer anymore. I'll say farewell to the hour of prayer because I'll be with God and we'll be able to speak to Him face to face. Beautiful.
Conclusion
What do you think of this song? Are there words here that really mean something to you that have touched you today? Please share that in the comments below.
As always, thank you for supporting this ministry. Those of you who support me on Patreon, thank you. If you enjoy the work I do, if you haven't seen already, by the way, I've recorded the first 25 Friday Classics onto an album that you can buy, or you can stream it on any of the streaming platforms if you want to just listen to the songs instead of all this commentary.
I hope that this is going to renew you and renew your excitement about the hour of prayer, taking time to meet with God. It doesn't have to be an hour exactly, but it can be more or it can be less. The point is, take the time to be with Jesus. Take the time to seek Him and to lay your burdens on Him, to cast your cares before Him, and to share with Him all your wants and desires. Your soul will find peace. Your soul will find something that nothing else can bring except prayer.
References
Kenneth W. Osbeck. 101 More Hymn Stories. 1985. Kregal Publications: Grand Rapids
John McLelland. The Ambassador Book of Great Hymn Stories. 1994. Ambassador Productions Ltd: Belfast
