SPEAK, LORD, IN THE STILLNESS

         Do you find that your life has become more busy, hectic and stressful?  Do you find it hard to find time to get everything done?  Do you long for periods of quietness to rest and meditate?    I imagine that this is a problem that we all deal with today, although isolation during the pandemic may have changed some of that.  
         But we do need to find quiet times to sit and listen for the Lord's voice. We need to quiet our heart and wait expectantly for His voice.  Psalm 27:14 tells us "Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.".  We need to be quiet in our hearts and expect to hear His voice.  Now he will not speak to us in a direct, supernatural communication but He will speak to us through His Word.  So, whenever we approach God's Word, whether in our private study or in hearing it preached by another, we should quiet our hearts and say, "Speak, Lord, in the Stillness."  
          This was the experience and desire of Emily Grimes Crawford (1864-1927) when in 1919 she penned the words to The Quiet Hour which later became known as Speak Lord in the Stillness.  She was a missionary serving in Pondoland, South Africa.  There she married Dr. T. W. W. Crawford, an Anglican minister.  The tune (Quietude) was composed by Harold Green (1871-1930) who was also a missionary in Pondoland.  Green provided this music for Mrs. Crawford's words around 1925, about five years before his death on the mission field. 
          The song quickly became a favorite at the Keswick Convention in northern England and appeared in The Keswick Hymnbook of 1936 in England. From there it found its way into the Inter-Varsity hymnbooks of England and America.  
          The hymn suggests that we should listen to God's Word because it is the Lord speaking, because it gives power, because it is life, because it brings us into His presence, because it helps us yield to Him and because it fills us with the knowledge of His will.  Isaiah 58:11 is a reminder of the message of the prophet Isaiah to Israel,  "The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail".  And while Isaiah didn't say it, this is true even during a pandemic.
         May we be reminded to find that quiet time daily to spend with the Lord and may the words of this hymn be our prayer as we do this.

1.     Speak, Lord, in the stillness,

  While I wait on Thee;

Hushed my heart to listen,

  In expectancy.

2     Speak, O blessed Master,

  In this quiet hour;

Let me see Thy face, Lord,

  Feel Thy touch of power.

3     For the words Thou speakest,

  They are life indeed;

Living bread from heaven,

  Now my spirit feed!

4     All to Thee is yielded,

  I am not my own;

Blissful, glad surrender,

  I am Thine alone.

5     Speak, Thy servant heareth,

  Be not silent, Lord;

Waits my soul upon Thee

  For the quickening word.

6     Fill me with the knowledge

  Of Thy glorious will;

All Thine own good pleasure

  In Thy child fulfill.

7     Like a watered garden,

  Full of fragrance rare,

Lingering in Thy presence,

  Let my life appear.

I had some difficulty finding a link for this hymn because none of the ones that I could find were the tune that I remember.  Apparently many tunes have been used over the years.  So here is one for you to listen to.    STILLNESS