The Story Behind the Song
“Spirit of the Living God” is one of the simplest songs believers sing. Its thirteen unique words are not complex; its music is not difficult. Of the four sung lines, three are the exact same phrase (“Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me”). The tune stays within the compass of just five notes, the rhythms are elementary, and the harmonies are easily playable.
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So why would such a simple song, written less than a century ago in 1926, be found in 84 different hymnals published by multiple denominations and sung in its original English as well as Spanish and Korean translations? It’s because its power, its effectiveness, lies not in its text or tune, but in its sincerity. It’s a prayer—a modest, unassuming petition to the Holy Spirit. A singer who truly prays the prayer and doesn’t just sing the song is asking God to, once again, reveal Himself, to disclose Himself in a new way that the singer hasn’t already experienced.
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The song is also intensely personal. In it, the singer doesn’t ask God to refresh the Holy Spirit in “them.” It doesn’t ask for a radical change in “us.” Just as in the old spiritual, which says “It’s me, it’s me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer… Not my brother, not my sister, but it’s me, O Lord…” this song asks for a renewal of “me.”
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The words may be simple, but they are profound. In the third line of text—“Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me”— the author Daniel Iverson (1890-1977) encapsulates in just four phrases how the Holy Spirit works in Christians.
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The first step in the Holy Spirit’s work in a believer’s life is a painful one—“break me.” A.W. Tozer wrote, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.” Broken people have realized that they are inadequate to deal with the problem of sin on their own. They are the ones Jesus referred to in His Sermon on the Mount, when He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). King David was man shattered by adultery and murder when he wrote, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).
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After God has broken a person, he must then be purified. A metalworker gathers raw material, which includes both the valuable precious metal as well as impurities called dross, and heats the ore to separate the two. This smelting process causes the metal to melt and the dross to rise to the surface so that it can be removed. If the impurities remain the metal is useless, but “Take away the dross from the silver, and the smith has material for a vessel” (Proverbs 25:4). When we sing “melt me,” we’re asking to be put into a crucible and be cleansed.
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Only after a person has been broken and purified is she ready to be shaped. As a creator, God has always been One Who forms order out of chaos—“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). This is the same God Who sent Jeremiah the prophet to watch a potter at work. “And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do” (Jeremiah 18:4). God used that visual to teach Jeremiah about Himself and His dealings with humanity: “Can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand” (Jeremiah 18:6).
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Finally, after being broken, purified and shaped into a useful vessel, we are ready to be filled and put to use. Just before Jesus left His disciples to go to the cross, He comforted them with the promise of another Presence: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper,… even the Spirit of truth… You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17). That promise made became a promise fulfilled at the Feast of Pentecost, when “suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:2-4).
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In the Old Testament, God’s Spirit would come over or into individuals for a special task or for a particular period of time, then would be withdrawn. That’s why King David prayed specifically, “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11). But as New Testament believers, we don’t have to worry that God will remove His Spirit. Jesus said of the Holy Spirit, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever” (John 14:16). So if we are Christians we need not pray for the Holy Spirit to be in our lives—He already is. But even the strongest believer needs from time to time to pray for a renewed vision of Him. Even the most mature disciple needs a revived realization of Who He is and what He is doing, and it’s in those times of rejuvenation that we can pray with all honesty and sincerity and simplicity, “Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me.”
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