"In the Secret of His Presence" - Text

Here's the text of the hymn I wrote a tune for:

In the secret of His presence how my soul delights to hide!
Oh, how precious are the lessons which I learn at Jesus’ side!
Earthly cares can never vex me, neither trials lay me low;
For when Satan comes to tempt me, to the secret place I go,
To the secret place I go.


When my soul is faint and thirsty, ’neath the shadow of His wing
There is cool and pleasant shelter, and a fresh and crystal spring;
And my Savior rests beside me, as we hold communion sweet:
If I tried, I could not utter what He says when thus we meet,
What He says when thus we meet.


Only this I know: I tell Him all my doubts, my griefs and fears;
Oh, how patiently He listens! and my drooping soul He cheers:
Do you think He ne’er reproves me? What a false Friend He would be,
If He never, never told me of the sins which He must see,
Of the sins which He must see.


Would you like to know the sweetness of the secret of the Lord?
Go and hide beneath His shadow: this shall then be your reward;
And whene’er you leave the silence of that happy meeting place,
You must mind and bear the image of the Master in your face,
Of the Master in your face.

I'm thrilled, because I believe I've finished the hymn-tune. I have decided to use Stanza 4 as a "chorus", sung after Stanzas 1 and 3 (ss. 2 and 3 need to stay together lyrically, so I'm only breaking them up with a 4-bar "Selah" break). My wife - the gold standard of good taste and super-encouraging feedback - likes it. My daughter found it dance-worthy. And I believe it'll work as a congregational piece. I think doing it as an upbeat song puts a new perspective on the text. Sandra McCracken does a great job focusing our attention on the rest we can have in prayer with Jesus; my attempt, I believe, is more of a celebration of prayer, and focuses the listener (who is hopefully singing along) on the dynamic interchange that can go on with Jesus during this special, secret time known as prayer. I've updated the words only slightly (the original words are printed above in this post).

I'll try to record a new demo of the finished song this weekend.