Though written over 100 years ago, the hymn “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” has a timely message: it’s a plea to God for higher times. The persona of this hymn is craving for an end to hassle, just as many individuals today want an end to bad news about wars, politics, the environment, and the mental state of teenagers.
This angst over the world’s condition jogs my memory of something I learned this Easter season. The word “Hosanna” doesn’t mean hooray or yippee. When crowds welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, their cries of Hosanna mean “rescue us” or “save us.”
Just as spring arrives after the gloom of late winter, there may be hope within the Messiah’s arrival. Yet Jesus isn’t what believers expected—a king overpowering the Roman Empire. His gift to the world is much greater than political gain. Jesus gave us everlasting life, just as rain waters give life to plants that nourish animals that feed people. And rain waters all of creation. The hymn “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” expresses a wish for a brighter future, with the hope that God will redeem His people once more.
What Are the Lyrics to “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings”?
“There Shall be Showers of Blessings,” by D.H. Whittle, appears in 313 known church hymnals, with perhaps its earliest appearance in I. D. Sankey’s Sacred Songs and Solos, published in 1890 (making the hymn public domain). A complete of six of Whittle’s songs are on this hymnal, as John Julian wrote within the Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II, published in 1907.
Here are lyrics as published within the African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal.
There shall be showers of blessing:
This is the promise of affection;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
Sent from the Savior above.Refrain:
Showers of blessing,
Showers of blessing we’d like:
Mercy-drops round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead.There shall be showers of blessing,
Precious reviving again;
Over the hills and the valleys,
Sound of abundance of rain. [Refrain]There shall be showers of blessing:
Send them upon us, O Lord;Grant to us now a refreshing,
Come and now honor Thy Word. [Refrain]There shall be showers of blessing:
Oh, that today they could fall,
Now as to God we’re confessing,
Now as on Jesus we call! [Refrain]
Who Wrote the Hymn “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings”?
Daniel Webster Whittle wrote the lyrics to “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” in 1883 when he was 43 years old. After his service within the Civil War—during which he was wounded on the Battle of Vicksburg and marched with General William Tecumseh Sherman’s forces through Georgia—he was awarded the unofficial title Major Daniel Webster Whittle. In his sixty years of life, from November 22, 1840, to March 4, 1901, he was a gospel song lyricist, evangelist, and Bible teacher in his home state of Massachusetts.
While in Chicago, Whittle worked for the Elgin Clock Company and joined his close associate, Dwight Lyman Moody, in evangelical Christian work. Whittle had turn out to be a Christian in the course of the war after praying with a fellow soldier before the young man passed away. After the person died, Whittle prayed for his soul. Whittle wrote lyrics for nearly 200 hymns under the pseudonym “El Nathan.” “Showers of Blessing” is one in all his hottest compositions.
The tune to “There Shall be Showers of Blessings” was written by James McGranahan, a up to date of Whittle. McGranahan was raised as a Pennsylvania farm boy who became an evangelist alongside Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey. McGranahan used his musical talents as a present for winning souls to Christianity. Granahan wrote over forty hymn melodies and was the primary to form a male choir to sing gospel songs. James McGranahan and his wife, Addie Vickery, were evangelists within the United States, Great Britain, and Ireland for eleven years.
Who Has Recorded “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings”?
American music legend Willie Nelson sang “There Will Be Showers of Blessings” and ten other spiritual songs on his 1980 album Family Bible. Nelson loosely quoted Harlan Howard when he said, “Three chords and the reality – that’s what a rustic song is. There’s a variety of heartache on the earth.”
“There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” shares that sentiment. Though its melody and lyrics sound positive on their surface, the song expresses a desire for relief from troubles, as expressed within the lines, “Mercy-drops round us are falling/But for the showers we plead” and “Grant to us now a refreshing/Come and now honor Thy Word.” “There Shall Be Showers of Blessing” is a song of hope for higher times. The small “mercy-drops” usually are not enough to sustain people. We need a downpour, a shower, of God’s grace.
Another icon of popular culture, country singer and entrepreneur Jimmy Dean, recorded “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” in 1957 on his Columbia Records album, Jimmy Dean’s Hour of Prayer. Jimmy Dean was a rustic music singer within the Fifties-Nineteen Sixties who branched out into acting: he hosted multiple radio and tv variety shows.
A born entrepreneur, his biggest financial success got here in 1965, when he bought his cousin’s hog farm and turned it into the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company. Jimmy Dean famously said in one in all his commercials, “Sausage is a terrific deal like life. You get out of it about what you place into it.”
Reader’s Digest also reports Dean using an old saying when reflecting on his profession: “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to at all times reach my destination.” Amid his fame, Jimmy Dean at all times saw himself as a poor farm boy from Texas who worked hard at his chores and first loved music at his Baptist church.
Does the Bible Say We Will Have Showers of Blessings?
“I’ll make them and the places throughout My hill a blessing; and I’ll cause showers to return down of their season; there shall be showers of blessing.” (Ezekiel 34:26)
Ezekiel pronounces these words as a prophecy from the Lord to Israel’s leaders—whom he calls Israel’s “shepherds”—who usually are not managing to maintain God’s people from sinning. In Ezekiel 34:10, he prophecies, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I’m against the shepherds and can hold them accountable for my flock.” The Lord is dismayed because “You haven’t strengthened the weak or healed the sick or certain up the injured. You haven’t brought back the strays or looked for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally” (Ezekiel 34:4). The Lord condemns the leaders of his Hebrew people, floundering of their faith within the Promised Land.
In Ezekiel 34:11-12, there may be hope when Ezekiel says, “For that is what the Sovereign LORD says: I actually will seek for my sheep and take care of them. As a shepherd takes care of his scattered flock when he’s with them, so will I take care of my sheep. I’ll rescue them from all of the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.”
Pastor J. Mike Minnix preached a sermon on the song “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” where he highlights this point: “The Spirit of God dwells in us, and to experience the fullness of His Spirit, we’d like to have a look at where we’re in our walk with Him. He likes to send spiritual rain and He has proven that previously.”
There have been dark times in American history when people’s faith wavered, and there was continual trouble on the earth. There have been again and again of war and great political divisions. In my lifetime, I witnessed the generation gap between those that experienced World War II and people living in the course of the Vietnam War. These wounds were healed by living water poured out in the shape of God’s love. In part, healing got here from the Jesus Movement of the Nineteen Seventies. God will send the rain again: there will likely be showers of blessing.
We can prepare for God’s showers of blessing, as Hosea 10:12 states: “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for [it is] time to hunt the LORD, till he come and rains righteousness upon you.” Hosea writes in a down-to-earth style, confident that the Lord will bless us in the long run. “Then lets know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is ready because the morning; and he shall come unto us because the rain, because the latter and former rain unto the earth” (Hosea 6:3).
Click on this link to listen to a 300-voice choir sing “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” with piano accompaniment.
Photo Credit:©GettyImages/torwai
