Ray Palmer was born in 1808 in Little Compton, Rhode Island. His father was a judge in the community. Because of unexpected financial difficulties, he was forced to discontinue his schooling at the age of thirteen and take a job as a store clerk in Boston. He began attending the historic Park Street Congregational Church and there accepted Christ as Savior.
Soon he felt the call of God to become a minister of the gospel. He resumed his education at Andover Academy and later graduated from Yale University. He took a part-time teaching position in a private girls’ school in New York City.
For years, he had burned the candle on both ends, working as a clerk in a dry goods store, attending classes at Yale, teaching at a girl’s school in New York City, and preparing for the ministry.
Mr. Palmer copied the verses into his small notebook that he always carried with him and thought no more about the lines, except to read them occasionally for his own devotion. Two years later, he was visiting in Boston when he chanced to meet, on a busy street, his friend, Dr. Lowell Mason. In the course of the conversation, Dr. Mason asked young Palmer if he knew of any good texts that could be used for a new hymnal that Mason was in the process of compiling. Hesitatingly, Palmer showed the noted musician his little notebook. This is Palmer’s account of that meeting:
“The little book containing the poem was shown him and he asked for a copy. We stepped into a store together and a copy was made and given to him, which, without much notice, he put into his pocket. Two or three days afterward, we met again on the street, when scarcely waiting to salute me, he earnestly exclaimed, ‘Mr. Palmer, you may live many years and do many good things, but I think you will be best known to posterity as the author of ‘My Faith Looks Up to Thee.’”
Lowell Mason had in the meantime composed a melody for this text. His prediction about this hymn certainly came true. Dr. Palmer’s entire life was characterized by a warm and passionate devotion to Christ. He was described as a healthy, cheerful, and buoyant man, greatly loved and admired by all who knew him.
Palmer believed his hymn flourished since it “embodied, in appropriate and simple language, that which is not central in all true Christian experience—the act of faith in the divine Redeemer—the entrusting of the individual soul to Him entirely and forever.”
In the early 1800s, Lowell Mason moved to Boston from Savannah, where for sixteen years he had worked in a bank while directing church choirs on the side. His early music training was in singing and structure of hymns. By the time he was 16, he was already conducting a choir and a band. He studied theory and composition with the German-born teacher, Frederick L. Abel. He started writing music and accepted a position as a church organist and choir director.
He wrote over 1600 hymns that included arrangements of previously written tunes and original works. Many of his hymns are still sung today by various church denominations. He arranged the music for the popular Christmas carol, Joy to the World. His hymns, anthems, children’s songs, and secular songs were published in numerous collections.
In addition to his pioneering work in the field of music instruction, many also consider him the “father of American church music.” He was awarded an honorary doctorate in music in 1855 from New York University.
Biblehub.com, Barnes’ Notes on the Bible: Godhead – His deity, divinity; divine nature, or essence. The word is not used elsewhere in the New Testament. Its meaning cannot therefore be fixed by any parallel passages. It proves the truth that the supremacy, or supreme divinity of God, was exhibited in the works of creation, and He was exalted above all creatures and things.
Studylight.org, Coffman’s Commentary on the Bible: The invisible things of Him . . . is a reference to God’s everlasting power and divinity; and Paul’s argument is that invisible things may be “seen” by the mind. The things that are made, namely, all created objects, are the things which enable the mind to comprehend what no natural eye can see, that is, His power and divinity.
Studylight.org, Contending for The Faith: When we reflect on our unworthiness, we may wonder whether the depth of our sin may exhaust the supply of God’s grace and forgiveness. To this insecurity, God replies He has “riches . . . of grace.” That our redemption cost so great a price – the blood of Christ--is the supreme evidence of the riches of the divine grace. And the measure of what God does for us is nothing less than the limitless wealth of His loving favor.
Studylight.org, Barnes’ Notes on the Whole Bible: Truth is eternal and unchanging. What God sees and regards as truth is true, because He sees things as they are; and when we have the divine estimate of anything, we understand what the thing is. Such is the perfection of His nature that we have the utmost assurance that what God regards as truth is truth; what He proclaims to be right is right.
Studylight.org, Gill’s Exposition of the Whole Bible: Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me . . . Meaning the Word of God, the Scriptures of truth; and the Gospel, which is the Word of truth, and truth itself, and the sense is, either that God would lead him by His Spirit more and more into all truth, as contained in His Word; or that He would lead Him by it and according to it.
Studylight.org, Dr. Constable’s Expository Notes: The redeemed will rejoice that they are finally in the presence of God, whose rule and care they had longed to be delivered to for so long . . . Finally, hope will have given way to sight, and Old Testament saints [all saints] will rejoice because they are finally with their Savior.
In the book, “A Treasure of Hymns”, there is a story that is connected to this hymn. It is said that during the American civil war, eight soldiers met in a tent to pray. They were all worried about their lives that they decided to send a message of comfort to their families in case they died. They all copied the final stanza of this hymn which each one signed. The next morning seven of the soldiers were killed.
Palmer, a future Doctor of Theology, and Mason, a Doctor of Music, met by chance in 1830 in Boston and a hymn generally considered to be one of the finest on the subject of faith and the necessity of placing our implicit trust and confidence in the finished work of Christ was born.
