Musical Notes

Hello OCBC family,
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 – NKJV).

This sweet call from our Lord Jesus Christ is because He knows we are in spiritual bankruptcy. He knows that humanity tries to save itself, following its own rules, or precepts that rather than bringing it closer to God, distance it from its Creator, and become a heavy burden. Pay attention that His first sentence in this passage is, “Come to Me.” This is an invitation to trust in Jesus personally and not just to know about Him. He will deliver us from a heavy laden, but in the next verse He tells us to take His yoke upon us. Is this a contradiction? By no means. Heavy laden is the Law and its precepts, hard to carry, but Jesus’ yoke is to be His disciple, and this will give us rest through simple commitment to Him.

Jesus’ invitation is to hear His voice and obey. This verse was the inspiration to Horatius Bonar to write down his hymn, “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say.”
I heard the voice of Jesus say,

“Come unto Me and rest;
lay down, thou weary one, lay down
thy head upon My breast.”
I came to Jesus as I was,
so weary, worn, and sad;
I found in Him a resting place,
and He has made me glad.

Horatius Bonar was born on 19 December 1808 in Edinburgh. His education was obtained at the High School, and the University of his native city. He was ordained to the ministry in 1837. He was pastor of the Establish Church of Scotland, but later he became a pastor of the Free Church of Scotland. In his family there was a long list of ministers and pastors.

He married Jane C. Bonar, and they had nine children, but sadly, five of them died in succession. He became very popular as hymnwriter and wrote several books for devotional reading.

In the hymn that we are checking today, Horatius wrote this poem as a testimony, but not focusing on him but in the work of Jesus Christ. Notice that Bonar starts each verse with “I heard” but suddenly he turns the attention to Jesus and His words and call.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold, I freely give
the living water, thirsty one;
stoop down, and drink, and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
of that life-giving stream;
my thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
and now I live in Him.

Horatius had a great love for children, and his goal was to make many of his hymns easy to understand to little ones. We must use this hymn to teach our little ones about biblical truths.

 First verse "Come unto Me and rest" — based on Matthew 11:28–30.

Second verse "I freely give the living water" — based on John 4:10–14 and John 7:37–38.

Third verse "I am this dark world's Light" — based on John 8:12.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“I am this dark world’s Light;
look unto Me, thy morn shall rise,
and all thy day be bright.”
I looked to Jesus, and I found
in Him my Star, my Sun;
and in that Light of life I’ll walk,
till trav'ling days are done.

Let us continue singing this hymn that is more than 175 years old.
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In His service,
Israel