He Keeps Me Singing

The Story Behind the Song

You can watch the video online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wblhGvWv5Os

On January 12, 1997, in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the University of Florida Gators were celebrating their first national championship in college football. Among the players being honored was record-setting and award-winning quarterback Danny Wuerffel, who was welcomed onto the stage to the sound of Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man.” The song was an homage to Danny’s strong Christian character and to his parents, Air Force chaplain Lt. Col. Jon Wuerffel and Lola Wuerffel, an organist and choir director. The Wuerffels had a legacy of faith extending back through the generations to their homeland of Germany. Danny said, “Faith has always been a part of my family’s heritage and lineage. Some people wonder if we are related to Martin Luther.”

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Another son of a preacher man with a family heritage of faith was Luther B. Bridgers (1884-1948). His father, James, was a pastor, and his great-(times eleven)-grandfather had been rector of St. John the Evangelist Church in Gloucestershire, England in the 1500s. As a youth, Bridgers committed his life to Christian ministry. His earliest service was helping his father in James’ revival meetings; his first pastorate was in Perry, Florida from 1908 to 1909. At that time, he felt led to become an itinerant evangelist and resigned his church.

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Around then, he wrote the words and tune to “He Keeps Me Singing.” Published in 1910 in “The Revival #6”, the hymn is an overview of the journey of faith. The first stanza is written in the present tense. It’s the testimony of a follower of Jesus who is living life, with all its ups and downs, in the knowledge that Christ is with him. And as we’ll see below, life was about to deliver a hard blow to Luther Bridgers.

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The second verse is a retrospective as a Christian looks back on his life before coming to know Christ—one filled with sin, strife, discord and pain. It’s the life Paul wrote about in Ephesians 2:1-2, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world.” But, the apostle continues, “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him” (Ephesians 2:4-6).

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The third and fourth verses speak of the ebbs and flows of life that were first mentioned in stanza one. At times, the blessings are flowing, grace is evident, and we’re very aware of God’s provision and protection. We feel like echoing Pippa in Robert Browning’s poem: “God’s in His heaven—all’s right with the world.”

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But, alas, all is not right in the world (not yet, anyway), because “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8), so even faithful, sincere disciples of Jesus sometimes face deep waters and rough paths. But even in the seasons when we can’t “look on His smiling face,” we can still “see his footprints” and know that He is with us.

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Luther Bridgers faced his own trial of life within a few years of writing “He Keeps Me Singing.” He had been away from home preaching a revival in Middlesboro, Kentucky. His wife, Sallie, and their three sons—Hughes (5 years), Veach (3 years) and a seven-month-old infant—went to visit her family in Harrodsburg, approximately 125 miles away. On Sunday night, March 26, 1911, Bridgers preached the final sermon of the protracted meeting and went to bed in the hotel in which he’d been staying. Around 1:00 in the wee hours of Monday morning, he was called down to the lobby to receive a phone call from Harrodsburg. He was told that a fire had broken out in his father-in-law’s home and his wife and three children had all perished.

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“For a few seconds, as he considered all he had lost, the preacher remained deathly silent. Then as the few gathered in the hotel lobby watched, he dropped to one knee and whispered, ‘Lord, I have preached the gospel to other people and told them it would comfort them in every hour of sorrow. Grant that this same gospel may comfort me.’”

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Luther Bridgers drew strength from that gospel, the good news that Jesus saves, that Jesus keeps, and that Jesus has a home prepared “far beyond the starry sky” for those who place their faith in him. In that lowest point of his life, Bridgers knew by personal experience what he had previously preached by faith—that Jesus did indeed fill his every longing, and would keep him singing throughout his life.

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Not every Christian will face the same degree of heartbreak that Luther Bridgers did. Some will live lives marked by little suffering, but others may experience even more grief than the loss of a spouse and children in one fell swoop. But there is one thing that every true believer in Jesus has in common with every other brother or sister in Christ—Jesus’ promises concerning heaven: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3) and “…the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:3-5).