Proverbs 147:3 “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” I am so sorry for the loss you’ve had to endure. And you are strong for still fighting, many others would’ve given up. I want you to know you are still chosen and loved, and that your husband is still with you. Everyday you live, you have to live for the both of you. God bless you and I have so much love and respect for your strength. ❤
Beautiful words, and a beautiful story behind them. George Matheson, a Scottish Presbyterian minister, found himself at age 20 alone when he went blind and his fiancé decided to break off the marriage. She left him. He turned to the Lord. In the darkness of the moment, he wrote this hymn in five minutes. It never needed any editing.
Do you have a source for this? I’d love to read more of the story. I find myself in a situation of heartbreak of my own, and have truly turned my life over to The Lord. This song makes me sob uncontrollably.
This song reminds of an another hymn, It is well written by Horatio Spafford. It is during our loss of a loved one, we find God more than ever. It is every reminder that we feel alone but never alone with God.
I lost my youngest child 8 weeks ago. Barely 23. I long to be with him. But I know my time is still here with his siblings until God calls me home. This is a long & weary road.
Hang in there. God promised to turn our mourning into joy and He is faithful. "I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow." Jeremiah 31:13
Last night I heard 120 high schoolers sing this with joy in their hearts. It left me in tears. This gives me such hope for our youth. I played it for my wife today and she was weeping. What a beautiful song. What an incredible God!
My choir is singing this right now. Sometimes I think that life isn’t worth living, and then I hear songs like these and I listen to the rest of the choir all in perfect tune, and I realize that it’s going to be ok.
Justine Raney Life gets better. It’s a matter of discovering cultivating the appropriate skills. So much is of that trial and error. It’s very gradual, like walking across a dry plateau toward a mountain. The art is finding the skills that harmonize with who you are, and then sharpening those skills.
I get that way also...almost give up thinking I'll ever make it in this world. Then I find beautiful songs like this that that lead me to pray. And that's when I find Christ's love just waiting there.
My only child, Michael was consumed by cancer at 45. Our choir had sung this glorious love song some months earlier and I requested that it be sung at his memorial service. Finding it in my suggested play list this morning was an immense blessing!
as i arrived home today, my mother was in a rush to leave the house. she told me my grandmother, who is battling als, is having difficulty breathing, and left me alone with that much. a week ago, i watched a choir perform this, and all i could think of is my grandma. this woman is the most hopeful and loving lady i have ever been graced to meet. if she doesn’t make it through tonight, this song will always give me a part of her. a part of her endless love.
I consider it a personal blessing that my choir was able to sing this beautiful prayer-song. This music is transcendent, a place to rest our weary souls. Thank you, Elaine, for your generosity of spirit!
Me too. Our choir sang this for an interfaith concert with a few other choirs and the spirit was so strong in the room that we all sang with tears streaming down our faces. So special.
… no surprise there, Jellybean. The words of this hymn are timeless. The combination of words, music, video, and choral unity are breathtaking. The greatest adversity we can experience is cushioned by God’s eternal love, and in this knowledge, a blessed hope is re-born within us. THANK YOU, to all involved. Such artistry, from time to time, is a lifeline. No wonder our hearts are humbled, and only tears can speak, when we cannot find the words.
I keep coming back to this... it has to be one of the absolutely most glorious sacred music pieces that is in existence! Thank you for writing this glorious piece!!
Singing this for a friend's memorial service. It's one thing to hear this beautiful music... It's quite another to sing it. Just practicing it can be emotionally overwhelming. This is a wonderful piece.
My choir was going to sing this before the quarantine happened. We will never get to. I'm not doing choir next year. So, I'll just cherish this song through here. I will sing it to my children one day. I swear it.
For a young lady, her music displays such passion and the kind of maturity that is found in the works of someone older and more experienced. I can only imagine what gems she will grace us with in the future.
Our choir is doing this now and it brings me to tears every time we sing it or when I listen to it. May be one of the most moving and powerful songs I've EVER heard!! I just added it to my list of songs I want done at my funeral.
I’ve found myself in some very dark places the last few years. Almost to the point where I wish not to be here anymore, just too much pain and things I’ve had to process. This song has been one of those songs that has made me hold on for dear life even though I didn’t feel any hope. Thank you Jesus, the only one who ever truly cared and loved me. He came to me in my deepest pain, my deepest sorrow and has never and will never let go.
I could barely speak the words when I was led to it by the Holy Spirit. I was grieving so bad from death and divorce it was a great many months before I could even say the words. O Love, every time is O God every single time in my heart❤❤❤
We just sang this song for Region 3 Choir. As many know being in a MEA festival for your state is a tiring experience. You sing for 2 days straight and then perform a concert. You can get tired of singing and may want to go home and that happened to me but this song just made all of those negative thoughts go away. To show the amount of emotion we needed I put myself in this song. For me I think about singing when I hear this song. Singing is something that no matter how I am feeling, it can always bring me joy. This song reminds me of how breathtaking music is when I am at my lowest. Thank you, Elaine Hagenberg, for creating songs that can bring everyone to tears. You have always been my favorite composer in the entire world❤️
My grandma is on her deathbed right now. My mom let me listen to this tonight and it made me cry for so long. She always loved the ocean too so great choice of background. Thank you so much for creating this piece of music. I’m also a part of my schools band and choir so it means more than words can express
I just played this on cello with a local church choir today. I had to hold my tears until later, but what a joy to look up and see many in the congregation in tears! 🙏 This is a gorgeous composition and recording, Elaine. Thank you.
Our church choir sang this at our wedding. When my husband, then fiance, and I heard it for the first time we immediately knew we needed this to be sung during the ceremony. It's absolutely beautiful beyond words.
Beautiful song, beautiful words, and most beautiful of all - the Love that never leaves us, never fails us. The Love that shines in the deepest darkness...
George Matheson's backstory that prompted him to write these words brings tears to my eyes, as I've know the same heartache. Hagenberg's arrangement is absolutely beautiful and brings the words to life in a touching way. Nicely done. Blessings to all.
My choir sang this for our concert back in October, and oh my god this is such a beautiful piece. We performed this so well that my director actually started crying. Only now am I realizing what these lyrics actually mean, and they almost brought ME to tears. Everything about this is just amazing.
I remember 2 years ago singing the Ssa version of this piece on the stage of Carnegie hall with my community choir. I love this piece so much and I really want to recommend this for my school choir for next year. I’ll be a senior next year 😢 and this piece was one of my favorites I sang in high school. Thank you so much Elaine!
I would love this to be my last hymn sung by choir and congregation for my funeral. What an all encompassing poem of life's journey from the present to eternity!
The first time I heard this song, I got goosebumps, it really resonated with me. Such a beautiful composition, a masterpiece that will withstand time. I can see future generations performing this even after a thousand years.
We will be performing this stunningly beautiful piece next month for our church choir director who is battling a serious illness. There will not be a dry eye in the room. God truly inspired this hymn.
My choir sang this song as the senior song we had last year and all the seniors got solo parts for the beginning and a few of them kept getting choked up because they had been with the choir all 4 years of their high school life and it was beautiful.
This is a masterpiece of choral music by Elaine Hagenburg that pierces the soul. It is a nice way to start a calm morning in peace. The work starts simply in a gentle, undulating theme of "O Love", which grows and repeats in a harmonic mix of SATB that feels like a burst of light. If your soul is not touched by the end of this piece, I don't know what will. 😍
Beautiful! ... O love of God that would not let me go, but that with His mercy all He lead me to His Beloved Son Jesus Christ! I now do, O Lord, rest my weary soul in Your hands of eternal love. O love O love O love, that will not let me go. I love You O my God! Thank You Lord Jesus! ... I had to listen to this song over and over again, for the joy it bring me this day! ... I look forward to starting my morning devotions with such singing. Blessing!
This song speaks volumes to me. I sang this at Ocean Grove Choir Festival exactly one week after my grandfather left this world, on the hour he went. I pray the pain will subside and one day that morn shall tearless be. We’re singing it at my chorale this spring. The alto part sounds perfect for the song.
I greatly admire your talent and your impeccable musical compositions that tell us about the almighty God. I will see you in eternity in the Celestial Canaan Elaine Hagenberg, member of the Celestial Choirs, you are a great woman.😙😙🐈🐈
This was my first introduction to your music. I've sung this in my church choir. No matter how many times we sing it, when the last note is sung the congregation pauses as if to let the sound wash over them like a blessing. This song IS a blessing.
The choir I sing in started rehearsing this tonight, the day after what would’ve been my father’s 71st birthday. We’re singing this for the Sunday our bishop visits and confirms people. My boyfriend is being confirmed that Sunday. I’m balling.
Sorry. Touched send icon by mistake. Meant to edit text for to correct position of closing quotation mark. Perhaps do not need to elaborate original message.
"O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go" was written on the evening of Matheson’s sister’s marriage. Years before, he had been engaged, until his fiancée learned that he was going blind-that there was nothing the doctors could do-and she told him that she could not go through life with a blind man and broke off the engagement. He went blind while studying for the ministry, and his sister had been the one to care for him through the years. He was now 40, and his sister’s marriage likely brought a fresh reminder of his own heartbreak. It was in the midst of this circumstance that Matheson penned this hymn, which he said was written in five minutes. British composer Florence Margaret Spencer Palmer set it to music in 1941. -Wikipedia
Me and my varsity choir sung this for our CPA, and honestly every time I sung this with my fellow choir members I always tear up. It's truly a beautiful piece.
O LOVE THAT WILT NOT LET ME GO (George Matheson) O Love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee; I give thee back the life I owe, That in thine ocean depths its flow May richer, fuller be. O light that followest all my way, I yield my flickering torch to thee; My heart restores its borrowed ray, That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day May brighter, fairer be. O Joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee; I trace the rainbow through the rain, And feel the promise is not vain, That morn shall tearless be. O Cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee; I lay in dust life’s glory dead, And from the ground there blossoms red Life that shall endless be.
My high school choir is doing this right now and I’m absolutely hooked on it! It’s such a wonderful song and it makes me cry every time I hear it in full.... so touching
I feel incredibly blessed that the Lord has led me to your music. It has touched my soul on an incredibly deeply profound level. Thank you for creating such beautiful masterpieces that dance across the soul.
I just listened to this for my chorus class...Oh my goodness! I couldn’t listen without tearing up...the way this song carried my soul and heart to God and it made me realize that I have a life to live now. All i can say is that this song has saved me ❤️
Had the joy of singing this with the FBBC Chorale last school year. It was a constant reminder of how firmly God held me. It still comes through my mind regularly. As a survivor of sexual assault, I still battle to be calm and to rest again. But I can turn again to my God. I can rest my weary soul in Him. And He can give me perfect peace because He loves me enough to never let go.
The day after Barbara Bush's funeral, when the St. Martin's Episcopal Church (Houston) family, and I daresay the Nation, was still trying to process, the choir sang this hymn, and it was a beautiful way to help us through our feelings and appreciate the gifts that God offers to us.
Just finished performing this stunning piece for District Honor Choir and I miss the chills I got from singing it so much. At first, I only thought of the song to be directed towards God, but then our choir director told us to feel from deep within, of a longing for someone that isnt there. Loving someone who does not feel the same. Just that thought alone brought so much meaning to this song, and brought forth a powerful performance from our choir. There was not a dry eye in the auditorium. The way the Basses and Tenors sing "O Love" is just so heart wrenching, it makes you smile so wide. The director told them to sing it sweetly to us Sopranos and Altos, and I just couldn't hold back tears. These weird men, incapable of any complicated emotions, sang something so incredibly beautiful first try.
Wait...you had to NOT think about God, but about some earthly relationship, to be moved by this song?? The God, that out of love sacrificed His own son that the price would be paid for our brokenness, was not enough? To me, the words don't even make sense in that context - they're actually taken from scripture and the accounts of God's intervention on man's behalf, and they speak of the love relationship between Creator and creation, Savior and those that were lost, condemned, but now redeemed! And why for "someone that is not there"? The texts speak of a "love that will not let me go", not someone that wandered away or never loved you back. I'm truly sorry for my incredulity! I just can't fathom what you're saying. My apologies for sharing these thoughts! Theyre not meant to offend. My prayer is that one day you will experience the love that is ten thousand times the depth and power of a love that is a "longing for someone that isn't there. Loving someone who does not feel the same." May God Bless you!
@@tso3964 Im glad I can come back to this video and comment now to say that I can actually love this song for it's original context. At the time of singing the piece for the first time, I was an athiest, but have since went on a spiritual journey and found God. I thank him so much for helping me realize all of what he could have helped me through but I had not accepted his love for. The Lord gave me a loving boyfriend that I spent most of my life with (now since have lost... sadly), and we helped each other. God led me to this wonderful church that I now am proud to call my family and home, and I am using my vocal talents to better serve him and help others realize the beauty of his unwavering love!
@@morganirbs2523 PRAISE GOD!!!!! Here I am feeling bad about what I wrote above, with no hope or opportunity to follow up with someone who may be spiritually seeking...but God took care of it! I will continue to pray for you and your new journey, and that God will do abundantly more for you than you could ever hope or imagine. I'm so sorry for your loss - but life in Christ has an amazing ability to heal wounds that seem beyond repair, and to redeem lives that lost in despair. Soli Deo Gloria! (To God Alone the Glory!)
I always get excited when I see another piece by Elaine Hagenberg or Dan Forrest in our stack of new music for church choir or the community choirs I'm in. Such wonderful, lush writing and arrangements. We've sung this a few times in our church choir already.
I first heard this song last September at a friend’s choir concert. I loved the song and learned afterwards that she had sung it for me, as I had recently been through a devastating breakup. Today is the 1 year anniversary of that breakup. I’m still just as devastated as I was then. This song allows me to simultaneously feel my grief and also helps me leave my life in The Lord’s hands-the love who will never let me go. Thank you for writing such gorgeous music to go with these lyrics. ❤
I heard this beautiful anthem today in the church where former First Lady Barbara Pierce Bush had her funeral yesterday at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas. It is incredibly moving and inspiring. It brought me to tears. Thank for so much for writing it.
Knowing Dan Forrest accompanied this choir in this recording makes me so happy because Elaine Hagenberg and Dan Forrest are my two favorite contemporary composers. As for this song, it melts my heart.
So beautiful - it made my heart sing and left me with the spirit of God and acknowledged again how much I am missing our choir at FBC-Austin. Will make me feel whole again when we can open up the churches everywhere. May God keep us in his arms until we can meet again. Sylvia Newsom
my high school choir sang this with a college choir. we sang it on the night that we lost one of our good friends. she was only a sophomore. this song holds so much emotion because we didn’t know she had passed until after we performed. and it felt like my world fell apart. but we continued to sing this song, and we ended up singing it for a performance a couple weeks after she passed. and it just brought me to tears. this song will always have a place in my heart.
I go to UK and we just recorded us singing this today (were the choristers) and it is by far my favorite piece. My wonderful teacher Mrs. Wilson constantly raves about how beautiful your music is and she is 100% correct. We are so grateful for the opportunity to sing as a choir this year, and this song made it even better.
Just so incredibly beautiful. As I listen I feel the nearness of heaven where morn shall tearless be and where that Love that has held us and brought us through the years will welcome us home. Thank you so much.
I first heard this when my college's other choir (the one I wasn't in) sang it, and was enthralled. That summer, I joined a community choir in my hometown and we not only did this song but I got to sing the gorgeous tenor part! Thank you for this gift to the world, the tune, chords, and the lyrics are especially poignant right now.
I always liked this simple but meaningful hymn. The choir in my church sang this arrangement yesterday for the celebration of Holy Communion. I lost it, right there in my seat. No kleenex and my wife was in the choir. 😭
This piece is one that truly changed my mind. I performed it at "Adult Dorian" and preparing it, I was absolutely NOT a fan. However, after the first rehearsal of it, seeing my tears running down my face along with many others, I knew I had it all wrong. It has ended up being one of my "go-to listening" pieces when I need a peaceful smile. Being born and raised here in Iowa, performing a piece by an Iowan composer, at my Alma Mater (Luther College) made it truly a memory I will cherish always. Soli Deo Gloria
The choir sang this for our devoted church president Wallace B . Smith in Independence MO. As the words were song...I felt...how truly fitting for this servant of God. I rest my weary soul in Thee...I give Thee back the life I owe! Amen
Heard this at my husband’s funeral today. What balm for my aching soul.
A hug to you Jess, with deepest sympathy. Mercies of rest and blessings of peace and comfort to you. 🙏❤️
This is such a beautiful song. My condolences for your loss 🙏🏾
Proverbs 147:3 “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
I am so sorry for the loss you’ve had to endure. And you are strong for still fighting, many others would’ve given up. I want you to know you are still chosen and loved, and that your husband is still with you. Everyday you live, you have to live for the both of you. God bless you and I have so much love and respect for your strength. ❤
❤I am so sorry
Beautiful words, and a beautiful story behind them. George Matheson, a Scottish Presbyterian minister, found himself at age 20 alone when he went blind and his fiancé decided to break off the marriage. She left him. He turned to the Lord. In the darkness of the moment, he wrote this hymn in five minutes. It never needed any editing.
😊😊
Do you have a source for this? I’d love to read more of the story. I find myself in a situation of heartbreak of my own, and have truly turned my life over to The Lord. This song makes me sob uncontrollably.
Definitely good to read the full story… it was sad but oh when he found God was beautiful ❤️❤️
🥺🥺🥺🙏🏻🤍🍃
This song reminds of an another hymn, It is well written by Horatio Spafford. It is during our loss of a loved one, we find God more than ever. It is every reminder that we feel alone but never alone with God.
I lost my youngest child 8 weeks ago. Barely 23. I long to be with him. But I know my time is still here with his siblings until God calls me home. This is a long & weary road.
Hang in there. God promised to turn our mourning into joy and He is faithful. "I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow." Jeremiah 31:13
Blessings to you! 🙏🙌
Thinking of you and sending you love. Blessings, peace and eternal hope to you.
Oh Diana...I have lost my youngest child as well...she was 41. I can feel your pain! Hugs and prayers!
Oh my gosh.. prayers for you. My heart aches for you
Last night I heard 120 high schoolers sing this with joy in their hearts. It left me in tears. This gives me such hope for our youth. I played it for my wife today and she was weeping. What a beautiful song. What an incredible God!
My choir is singing this right now.
Sometimes I think that life isn’t worth living, and then I hear songs like these and I listen to the rest of the choir all in perfect tune, and I realize that it’s going to be ok.
Justine Raney Life gets better. It’s a matter of discovering cultivating the appropriate skills. So much is of that trial and error. It’s very gradual, like walking across a dry plateau toward a mountain. The art is finding the skills that harmonize with who you are, and then sharpening those skills.
So Beautifully said... ♥️💖🧡💛💚💙💜 Thankyou for sharing❣️
I get that way also...almost give up thinking I'll ever make it in this world. Then I find beautiful songs like this that that lead me to pray. And that's when I find Christ's love just waiting there.
Life is always worth living. Jesus loves you and He has an incredible plan for you. Let Him love you. Give Him back the life you owe....
hope you find peace, love you ❤️
I could listen over and over and the tears never stop. My mother is dying as I lay next to her. This will be a tribute and the hymn at her funeral.
My only child, Michael was consumed by cancer at 45. Our choir had sung this glorious love song some months earlier and I requested that it be sung at his memorial service. Finding it in my suggested play list this morning was an immense blessing!
as i arrived home today, my mother was in a rush to leave the house. she told me my grandmother, who is battling als, is having difficulty breathing, and left me alone with that much.
a week ago, i watched a choir perform this, and all i could think of is my grandma. this woman is the most hopeful and loving lady i have ever been graced to meet.
if she doesn’t make it through tonight, this song will always give me a part of her. a part of her endless love.
I get so choked up trying to sing this that I can barely get through it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
DITTO!!!!
Same here... No clue why.
I consider it a personal blessing that my choir was able to sing this beautiful prayer-song. This music is transcendent, a place to rest our weary souls. Thank you, Elaine, for your generosity of spirit!
This feel I understand
Me too. Our choir sang this for an interfaith concert with a few other choirs and the spirit was so strong in the room that we all sang with tears streaming down our faces. So special.
just started singing this in our choir and i’ve already cried on the first listen
I'm cryin' like a baby. I can't sing this without crying.
@@nickpalmiotto5437 Loved
I love it.
… no surprise there, Jellybean. The words of this hymn are timeless. The combination of words, music, video, and choral unity are breathtaking.
The greatest adversity we can experience is cushioned by God’s eternal love, and in this knowledge, a blessed hope is re-born within us. THANK YOU, to all involved. Such artistry, from time to time, is a lifeline. No wonder our hearts are humbled, and only tears can speak, when we cannot find the words.
SAME 😭😭 it's such a beautiful song!!
I keep coming back to this... it has to be one of the absolutely most glorious sacred music pieces that is in existence! Thank you for writing this glorious piece!!
completely agree
Singing this for a friend's memorial service. It's one thing to hear this beautiful music... It's quite another to sing it. Just practicing it can be emotionally overwhelming. This is a wonderful piece.
I adore this song. Thank you. I play it every once in a while and let it wash over me.
My choir was going to sing this before the quarantine happened. We will never get to. I'm not doing choir next year. So, I'll just cherish this song through here. I will sing it to my children one day. I swear it.
same thing happened to me :( still such a special song!
Please do sing it whenever you can.
You will. I sang every choir song I could think of to my babies. It's a beautiful gift to be able to give them.
For a young lady, her music displays such passion and the kind of maturity that is found in the works of someone older and more experienced. I can only imagine what gems she will grace us with in the future.
I already hear this for 50+ times🔥🥳. This song remind me that Jesus loves me too muchh
❤😊
Our choir is doing this now and it brings me to tears every time we sing it or when I listen to it. May be one of the most moving and powerful songs I've EVER heard!! I just added it to my list of songs I want done at my funeral.
I’ve found myself in some very dark places the last few years. Almost to the point where I wish not to be here anymore, just too much pain and things I’ve had to process. This song has been one of those songs that has made me hold on for dear life even though I didn’t feel any hope. Thank you Jesus, the only one who ever truly cared and loved me. He came to me in my deepest pain, my deepest sorrow and has never and will never let go.
I could barely speak the words when I was led to it by the Holy Spirit. I was grieving so bad from death and divorce it was a great many months before I could even say the words. O Love, every time is O God every single time in my heart❤❤❤
We just sang this song for Region 3 Choir. As many know being in a MEA festival for your state is a tiring experience. You sing for 2 days straight and then perform a concert. You can get tired of singing and may want to go home and that happened to me but this song just made all of those negative thoughts go away. To show the amount of emotion we needed I put myself in this song. For me I think about singing when I hear this song. Singing is something that no matter how I am feeling, it can always bring me joy. This song reminds me of how breathtaking music is when I am at my lowest. Thank you, Elaine Hagenberg, for creating songs that can bring everyone to tears. You have always been my favorite composer in the entire world❤️
I am singing this song in my fifth grade choir. I love this song! It’s beautiful! ❤
My grandma is on her deathbed right now. My mom let me listen to this tonight and it made me cry for so long. She always loved the ocean too so great choice of background. Thank you so much for creating this piece of music. I’m also a part of my schools band and choir so it means more than words can express
My choir started to learn this. When we listened to it the first time, I almost got choked up. So powerful. Aria, rip.
is it me or does Elaine arrange music in a totally heavenly way...?!
exactly
I just played this on cello with a local church choir today. I had to hold my tears until later, but what a joy to look up and see many in the congregation in tears! 🙏
This is a gorgeous composition and recording, Elaine. Thank you.
Our church choir sang this at our wedding. When my husband, then fiance, and I heard it for the first time we immediately knew we needed this to be sung during the ceremony. It's absolutely beautiful beyond words.
Beautiful song, beautiful words, and most beautiful of all - the Love that never leaves us, never fails us. The Love that shines in the deepest darkness...
I cry tears of joy everytime I listen to this piece
George Matheson's backstory that prompted him to write these words brings tears to my eyes, as I've know the same heartache.
Hagenberg's arrangement is absolutely beautiful and brings the words to life in a touching way. Nicely done. Blessings to all.
I love this song and its message...
My choir sang this for our concert back in October, and oh my god this is such a beautiful piece. We performed this so well that my director actually started crying. Only now am I realizing what these lyrics actually mean, and they almost brought ME to tears. Everything about this is just amazing.
I remember 2 years ago singing the Ssa version of this piece on the stage of Carnegie hall with my community choir. I love this piece so much and I really want to recommend this for my school choir for next year. I’ll be a senior next year 😢 and this piece was one of my favorites I sang in high school. Thank you so much Elaine!
I fell in love with this hymn text 22 years ago and have been waiting for someone to set it to a lovely tune. This is perfect!
I would love this to be my last hymn sung by choir and congregation for my funeral. What an all encompassing poem of life's journey from the present to eternity!
The first time I heard this song, I got goosebumps, it really resonated with me. Such a beautiful composition, a masterpiece that will withstand time. I can see future generations performing this even after a thousand years.
We will be performing this stunningly beautiful piece next month for our church choir director who is battling a serious illness. There will not be a dry eye in the room. God truly inspired this hymn.
Stunning arrangement of a familiar hymn. So moving!
Moving yet very emotive. Thanks Elaine for the gift of music that is so tranquil and immaculate.
I was blessed to sing this when Elaine came to our church!! Love it!!
My choir sang this song as the senior song we had last year and all the seniors got solo parts for the beginning and a few of them kept getting choked up because they had been with the choir all 4 years of their high school life and it was beautiful.
Seriously one of the best choral pieces I’ve ever heard.
This is a masterpiece of choral music by Elaine Hagenburg that pierces the soul. It is a nice way to start a calm morning in peace. The work starts simply in a gentle, undulating theme of "O Love", which grows and repeats in a harmonic mix of SATB that feels like a burst of light. If your soul is not touched by the end of this piece, I don't know what will. 😍
I come back to this recording all the time. It’s gotten me through a lot. Thank you for your beautiful work on this arrangement. ❤️
Keep coming back to this song. Thank you. In moments of depression it gives me hope to let go of past.
I’m back. So long without choral music in my heart. I rest my weary in Thee. Thank you for this awe inspiring music, again and again.
Praise the Lord! Amazing talent and skill, Elaine.
I break that soultie right now..in JESUS name! Thank YOU! LORD..replace vacancy with the DEEP, DEEP LOVE OF JESUS..
If it is FG..otherwise ok..
I sang this with my choir when I was a teenager. It has a special place my heart
Beautiful! ... O love of God that would not let me go, but that with His mercy all He lead me to His Beloved Son Jesus Christ! I now do, O Lord, rest my weary soul in Your hands of eternal love. O love O love O love, that will not let me go. I love You O my God! Thank You Lord Jesus! ... I had to listen to this song over and over again, for the joy it bring me this day! ... I look forward to starting my morning devotions with such singing. Blessing!
This song speaks volumes to me. I sang this at Ocean Grove Choir Festival exactly one week after my grandfather left this world, on the hour he went. I pray the pain will subside and one day that morn shall tearless be. We’re singing it at my chorale this spring. The alto part sounds perfect for the song.
I greatly admire your talent and your impeccable musical compositions that tell us about the almighty God. I will see you in eternity in the Celestial Canaan Elaine Hagenberg, member of the Celestial Choirs, you are a great woman.😙😙🐈🐈
Here I stand in the shadow of loves wings! 79 years of blessings
We just sang this for Honors Choir, this song is by far the best chorale piece I've ever heard and is second to none.
This is the song I want sung at my funeral.
This was my first introduction to your music. I've sung this in my church choir. No matter how many times we sing it, when the last note is sung the congregation pauses as if to let the sound wash over them like a blessing. This song IS a blessing.
Thank you, Elaine, for such a blessing.
The choir I sing in started rehearsing this tonight, the day after what would’ve been my father’s 71st birthday. We’re singing this for the Sunday our bishop visits and confirms people. My boyfriend is being confirmed that Sunday. I’m balling.
Perhaps you meant to use the word "bawling instead of "
Sorry. Touched send icon by mistake. Meant to edit text for to correct position of closing quotation mark. Perhaps do not need to elaborate original message.
"O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go" was written on the evening of Matheson’s sister’s marriage. Years before, he had been engaged, until his fiancée learned that he was going blind-that there was nothing the doctors could do-and she told him that she could not go through life with a blind man and broke off the engagement. He went blind while studying for the ministry, and his sister had been the one to care for him through the years. He was now 40, and his sister’s marriage likely brought a fresh reminder of his own heartbreak. It was in the midst of this circumstance that Matheson penned this hymn, which he said was written in five minutes. British composer Florence Margaret Spencer Palmer set it to music in 1941. -Wikipedia
Celestially beautiful, All encompassing Shalom. Amen.
Me and my varsity choir sung this for our CPA, and honestly every time I sung this with my fellow choir members I always tear up. It's truly a beautiful piece.
I can't believe I haven't heard this till now. Perhaps the most beautiful choral work I have heard.
Such control in the subtlety of the performance is breathtaking. Extremely beautiful....the men in the last few measures gives me chills. Gorgeous.
O LOVE THAT WILT NOT LET ME GO (George Matheson)
O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.
O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.
Thank you for posting. We can love because He first loved us.
Obrigada! É melancólico...mas muito bela!!!
Not bad, especially considering that was written in 1882.
Thanks for giving the original version!
THE Best part...O ✝️ cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee.
My high school choir is doing this right now and I’m absolutely hooked on it! It’s such a wonderful song and it makes me cry every time I hear it in full.... so touching
Your setting of this classic verse is stunning. I didn't think a new tune would give it fresh meaning, but yours is transcendent. Thank you.
Simply the most beautiful and touching anthem I’ve ever sung! Thanks so much. Can’t stop listening.
Our choir has done that and it's a 'lump in the throat experience'! Beautiful!
I met the love of my life and he sent this to me. I listen to this every day as a peace ritual for my life.
Blessings from Taiwan 🇹🇼 😇 🥰
Thank you for this BEAUTIFUL and POWERFUL song ❤🎵
God bless you and your ministry 😇💖
I feel incredibly blessed that the Lord has led me to your music. It has touched my soul on an incredibly deeply profound level. Thank you for creating such beautiful masterpieces that dance across the soul.
♥️💖🧡💛💚💙💜
I just listened to this for my chorus class...Oh my goodness! I couldn’t listen without tearing up...the way this song carried my soul and heart to God and it made me realize that I have a life to live now. All i can say is that this song has saved me ❤️
Had the joy of singing this with the FBBC Chorale last school year. It was a constant reminder of how firmly God held me. It still comes through my mind regularly. As a survivor of sexual assault, I still battle to be calm and to rest again. But I can turn again to my God. I can rest my weary soul in Him. And He can give me perfect peace because He loves me enough to never let go.
Our Church choir director sang this as a solo at my husband’s funeral Mass. He loved this song.
Such a beautiful beautiful song…and the words are simply perfection🙏🏻
The day after Barbara Bush's funeral, when the St. Martin's Episcopal Church (Houston) family, and I daresay the Nation, was still trying to process, the choir sang this hymn, and it was a beautiful way to help us through our feelings and appreciate the gifts that God offers to us.
Just finished performing this stunning piece for District Honor Choir and I miss the chills I got from singing it so much. At first, I only thought of the song to be directed towards God, but then our choir director told us to feel from deep within, of a longing for someone that isnt there. Loving someone who does not feel the same. Just that thought alone brought so much meaning to this song, and brought forth a powerful performance from our choir. There was not a dry eye in the auditorium. The way the Basses and Tenors sing "O Love" is just so heart wrenching, it makes you smile so wide. The director told them to sing it sweetly to us Sopranos and Altos, and I just couldn't hold back tears. These weird men, incapable of any complicated emotions, sang something so incredibly beautiful first try.
Wait...you had to NOT think about God, but about some earthly relationship, to be moved by this song?? The God, that out of love sacrificed His own son that the price would be paid for our brokenness, was not enough? To me, the words don't even make sense in that context - they're actually taken from scripture and the accounts of God's intervention on man's behalf, and they speak of the love relationship between Creator and creation, Savior and those that were lost, condemned, but now redeemed! And why for "someone that is not there"? The texts speak of a "love that will not let me go", not someone that wandered away or never loved you back. I'm truly sorry for my incredulity! I just can't fathom what you're saying. My apologies for sharing these thoughts! Theyre not meant to offend. My prayer is that one day you will experience the love that is ten thousand times the depth and power of a love that is a "longing for someone that isn't there. Loving someone who does not feel the same." May God Bless you!
@@tso3964 Im glad I can come back to this video and comment now to say that I can actually love this song for it's original context. At the time of singing the piece for the first time, I was an athiest, but have since went on a spiritual journey and found God. I thank him so much for helping me realize all of what he could have helped me through but I had not accepted his love for. The Lord gave me a loving boyfriend that I spent most of my life with (now since have lost... sadly), and we helped each other. God led me to this wonderful church that I now am proud to call my family and home, and I am using my vocal talents to better serve him and help others realize the beauty of his unwavering love!
@@morganirbs2523 PRAISE GOD!!!!! Here I am feeling bad about what I wrote above, with no hope or opportunity to follow up with someone who may be spiritually seeking...but God took care of it! I will continue to pray for you and your new journey, and that God will do abundantly more for you than you could ever hope or imagine. I'm so sorry for your loss - but life in Christ has an amazing ability to heal wounds that seem beyond repair, and to redeem lives that lost in despair. Soli Deo Gloria! (To God Alone the Glory!)
I always get excited when I see another piece by Elaine Hagenberg or Dan Forrest in our stack of new music for church choir or the community choirs I'm in. Such wonderful, lush writing and arrangements. We've sung this a few times in our church choir already.
Thank you Elaine well done good and faithful servant of the Lord
Elaine,
I heard this at church today for the first time. This song touched my soul. Thank you for this incredible, beautiful song!
One of the most beautiful pieces of music that have ever heard.
A beautiful window to divine grace and love. Thank you.
I first heard this song last September at a friend’s choir concert. I loved the song and learned afterwards that she had sung it for me, as I had recently been through a devastating breakup. Today is the 1 year anniversary of that breakup. I’m still just as devastated as I was then. This song allows me to simultaneously feel my grief and also helps me leave my life in The Lord’s hands-the love who will never let me go. Thank you for writing such gorgeous music to go with these lyrics. ❤
I discovered this yesterday. This song gives hope at this moment.
I heard this beautiful anthem today in the church where former First Lady Barbara Pierce Bush had her funeral yesterday at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas. It is incredibly moving and inspiring. It brought me to tears. Thank for so much for writing it.
Knowing Dan Forrest accompanied this choir in this recording makes me so happy because Elaine Hagenberg and Dan Forrest are my two favorite contemporary composers. As for this song, it melts my heart.
So beautiful - it made my heart sing and left me with the spirit of God and acknowledged again how much I am missing our choir at FBC-Austin. Will make me feel whole again when we can open up the churches everywhere. May God keep us in his arms until we can meet again. Sylvia Newsom
my high school choir sang this with a college choir. we sang it on the night that we lost one of our good friends. she was only a sophomore. this song holds so much emotion because we didn’t know she had passed until after we performed. and it felt like my world fell apart. but we continued to sing this song, and we ended up singing it for a performance a couple weeks after she passed. and it just brought me to tears. this song will always have a place in my heart.
I go to UK and we just recorded us singing this today (were the choristers) and it is by far my favorite piece. My wonderful teacher Mrs. Wilson constantly raves about how beautiful your music is and she is 100% correct. We are so grateful for the opportunity to sing as a choir this year, and this song made it even better.
This is so beautiful.
Thank you.🔵💙
Psalm 116:6
Just so incredibly beautiful. As I listen I feel the nearness of heaven where morn shall tearless be and where that Love that has held us and brought us through the years will welcome us home. Thank you so much.
I first heard this when my college's other choir (the one I wasn't in) sang it, and was enthralled. That summer, I joined a community choir in my hometown and we not only did this song but I got to sing the gorgeous tenor part! Thank you for this gift to the world, the tune, chords, and the lyrics are especially poignant right now.
I'm crying as I hear this and remember my church choir singing it last year.
I love this hymn in its first setting and this is beautiful now as well. I'm so pleased we're going to sing it in the Stay at Home Choir!!!
I always liked this simple but meaningful hymn. The choir in my church sang this arrangement yesterday for the celebration of Holy Communion. I lost it, right there in my seat. No kleenex and my wife was in the choir. 😭
This piece is one that truly changed my mind. I performed it at "Adult Dorian" and preparing it, I was absolutely NOT a fan. However, after the first rehearsal of it, seeing my tears running down my face along with many others, I knew I had it all wrong. It has ended up being one of my "go-to listening" pieces when I need a peaceful smile. Being born and raised here in Iowa, performing a piece by an Iowan composer, at my Alma Mater (Luther College) made it truly a memory I will cherish always. Soli Deo Gloria
Oh how utterly beautiful!!
This is a surprise..thank you ...comforting....
Just know if you are reading this you are beautiful and their is hope! This is beautiful 🙏❤
The choir sang this for our devoted church president Wallace B . Smith in Independence MO.
As the words were song...I felt...how truly fitting for this servant of God. I rest my weary soul in Thee...I give Thee back the life I owe! Amen
We just sang this in choir this summer. It's such a beautiful song. I can't get enough of this one!
Very beautiful Work, sung so well! 🎶