Just a Closer Walk With Thee

• 2 Samuel 22:33
  (hymns)
• Psalm 62
  (hymns)
• Psalm 73:26
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 6:8
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 26:3
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 41:10
  (hymns)
• Hosea 11:12
  (hymns)
• Joel 3:10
  (hymns)
• Micah 6:8
  (hymns)
• Matthew 11:28-30
  (hymns)
• Matthew 14:22-33
  (hymns)
• Matthew 26:31-35
  (hymns)
• Matthew 26:69-75
  (hymns)
• Mark 14:66-72
  (hymns)
• Luke 1:38
  (hymns)
• Luke 22:55-62
  (hymns)
• John 18:16-18
  (hymns)
• John 18:25-27
  (hymns)
• Acts 10:12
  (hymns)
• 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
  (hymns)
• 1 Corinthians 12:10
  (hymns)
• 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:10
  (hymns)
• 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
  (hymns)
• 2 Corinthians 13:4
  (hymns)
• Ephesians 5
  (hymns)
• Ephesians 6:10
  (hymns)
• Philippians 4:13
  (hymns)
• James 4:8
  (hymns)

• Year A, Lent, Second Sunday
  This is recommended for Year A, Lent, Second Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #661.
• Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 9 (14)

Text:

No one knows when or where this song was written, but it became popular in the 1930s and 1940s in the South of the United States among African Americans, and spread from there. This song has three stanzas and a refrain. It acknowledges the frailty of human life and willpower, and asks for Jesus's companionship throughout our daily life.

Tune:

The tune's origins, like those of the text are anonymous. CLOSER WALK is named for the text with which it has always been paired. The chromatic scale of the first phrase of the melody and the tune's association with concert singers are factors against use for congregational singing. However, the repetition within the song could help overcome this, since the same melody is used for the stanzas and the refrain.

When/Why/How:

This song is often performed in concert rather than sung by congregations in worship, but it may have congregational origins (Paul Westermeyer, Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship, p. 553). It is popular among choral arrangers, who explore the range of moods this tune can accommodate with varying tempos. For example, “A Closer Walk with Thee,” which is a medley of “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” and “Trust and Obey,” has a bluesy accompaniment at a quick tempo. “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” is a slow, soulful setting for choir and piano, and optional instruments and rhythm. A simpler version of “Just a Closer Walk” has a little swing and a short instrumental motif during the long notes of the melody.

Tiffany Shomsky,
Hymnary.org

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