Today’s song from Sing Praise (it’s really not a hymn in the traditional sense) is ‘My Jesus, My Saviour’ by Darlene Zschech. Incidentally I’ve often wondered how her name should be pronounced. I have heard it said like either ‘Check’ or ‘Zetch’. But I’ve just looked up her Wikipedia biography where (using the international phonetic alphabet) it’s nearer ‘Check’. Anyhow, this is undoubtedly her best-known song and one of the most popular of its kind across churches of many traditions.
Perhaps its popularity is in its memorable melodies (I leave John to comment on the piano accompaniment), as well as a sort of feel-good factor in the words. According to the above-mentioned biography (which is worth reading) Darlene wrote it during a time of personal struggle; maybe that is why it resonates with so many people, as a song of hope and faith. Jesus is indeed a ‘tower of refuge and strength’ at such times. And in the way that she finds the words and music to praise God through difficulties, it’s really a Psalm for our times.
Yes, this song is a firm favourite of many Christians. It’s hard to see quite how it works, for the rhyme-structure isn’t particularly strong; but the combination of very direct words and a very singable tune seems to work very well.
I don’t quite know what Stephen expects me to say about the piano accompaniment? There is a favourite piano ditty which children like to play which consists of the four chords C, Am, F and G in rotation; and of course this is the chord structure which underlies the beginning of the second part of the song (and again when it is repeated) – so maybe this is part of its ease? (In the same way, the chorus of “Shine Jesus Shine” takes up the “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” of the famous “She loves you …” by the Beatles, which is maybe why it is so popular?) And perhaps another factor is that it seems to have the right balance of syncopation and straight rhythms, so that the time-keeping never becomes a problem for the singers, unlike a lot of other modern Christian music (for example Nathan Fellingham’s “Holy holy” which we sung a few days ago).