In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic moved worship out of traditional sacred spaces, I recorded and shared a video of Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah. I included the text as an encouragement for folks to sing along. The following week, I shared another video. Each week brought a new hymn recording, and now two years later the collection contains more than 100 hymns. The videos are collected here, beginning with the most recent. I hope you enjoy these recordings that draw on a few of my favorite pages in the hymnal.
Dean’s latest album release, How Can I Keep from Singing, contains 14 selections from the Sunday Morning Hymns collection. The album is available on CD or as a download for your digital music player. You can also listen on your preferred streaming service.
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O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
A mystical experience inspired George Matheson to write “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go.” The hymn came, in the author’s words, “Like a dayspring from on high.” By Matheson’s account, the entire work was completed in five minutes with no retouching or correction. The tune came as quickly to Albert Peace: “The ink of the first note was hardly dry when I had finished the tune.” The text is included, so please add your voice and sing along. -
Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us
“Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us” appears in almost every Christian hymnal. The text is attributed to Dorothy Ann Thrupp because it first appeared in her collection of “Hymns for the Young,” and she often published hymns anonymously, under her initials or the pseudonym Iota. While the original text was directed to children, William Bradbury broadened the text to include the whole congregation. The text is included, so please add your voice and sing along. (Recorded May 2020) -
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Some hymns express a strong autobiographical thread for the writer. That is case for Robert Robinson, who lived a debauched life before falling under the influence of George Whitefield’s preaching. Some hymns become favorites because they express an autobiographical experience for the singer. Such is the case for me: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.” For most of my life, I have numbered Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing among my favorite hymns. The text is included, so please add your voice and sing along. (The recording was made in May 2020.) -
Rejoice, the Lord Is King
This well-known hymn by Charles Wesley was first published in a small collection of “Hymns for Our Lord’s Resurrection” for Easter of 1746. The refrain—an unusual lyrical device for the time—of Wesley’s text combines the eucharistic Sursum corda, “Lift up your hearts,” with a reference to Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” The text is included here so please add your voice and sing along.
How Can I Keep from Singing, an album of 14 selections from Dean's Sunday Morning Hymns, is available at https://www.deanphelpsmusic.com/how-can-i-keep-from-singing/. -
In the Garden
On Easter 2020, we were only a few weeks into the adventure of COVID-19, and I offered this rendition of “In the Garden” as the Sunday Morning Hymn selection. The hymn finds little middle ground, being adored by some and scorned by others. C. Austin Miles wrote the text following a vision of Christ with Mary Magdelene on the resurrection morning, a vision so intense he felt as though he were part of the scene. As a result, the hymn has a deeply personal character. The text is included with this remastered video from two years ago, so please add your voice and sing along. -
Beneath the Cross of Jesus
Perpetually in frail health, Elizabeth Clephane lived a brief 39 years. It is thought that she wrote “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” within the last year of her life, but the poem was first published in 1872, three years after her death. Although often sung during Holy Week, the hymn offers a personal meditation on the cross and one’s own mortality. The text is included here, so please add your voice and sing along.
How Can I Keep from Singing
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