How weak my spirit is, O Lord

Paul Sayer here explores the need to pray, in a spirit of trusting, humble realism anticipated by Cowper in 615. The hymn was completed in 1991 at home in Hersham, Surrey; it followed a morning sermon on Romans 8:26–27 preached on 9 June at Hook Evangelical Church, Surbiton, by the pastor Brian Edwards. He identified the Spirit-prompted ‘groans’ of deep longing for God, dissatisfaction with ourselves, desperation when overwhelmed, or adoration when we run out of words. The preacher ‘knew of no hymn based on this passage and so composed two verses to close the sermon’, beginning ‘He it is who prompts our prayer’ and ‘O holy Friend, come to us now’ (=stz 6). Paul Sayer, then a church elder, ‘picked these up and between us we expanded it into a hymn’ (BE). One of the combined stzs, ‘And so I cry and long to speak’ was later omitted, and 3.2 emended; it was also agreed that only one author’s name should appear. The hymn was sung (anonymously) at Hook during Aug 1991 and it is first formally published here.

John B Dykes’ tune BEATITUDO, with which this text was matched from the start, was composed for the Watts/Cameron paraphrase How bright these glorious spirits shine (974), and set to those words in the 1875 A&M. CH pairs it with two other hymns; the Anglican Hymn Book and HTC are among those using it for 536 (another ‘prayer’ text) while Congregational churches traditionally chose it for 975.

b Twickenham, Middx 1934. d 2012. He was an associate of the Chartered Inst of Bankers and worked in banking until retirement. A former Elder of Hook Evangelical Ch (FIEC) in Surbiton, he subsequently became a member of Gt Bookham Baptist Ch, also in Surrey. He served on the Editorial Board of Praise! as its first secretary; 2 hymns in the book (one of which features also in the 2004 edn of CH) are the first of his to be published. Nos.605*, 634.