What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Top Media Text Author Text Info Notes Tune For Leaders Timeline Arrangements Page Scans Instances

What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear

Author: Joseph Medlicott Scriven (1855)
Tune: CONVERSE (Converse)
Prayer Songs
Published in 1780 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF
Playable presentation: Lyrics only, lyrics + music
Audio files: MIDI, Recording

Song available on My.Hymnary

FlexScore
	What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Piano/Organ
	A Mighty Fortress: Piano Meditations on…

Choral
	What a Friend We Have In Jesus

Representative Text

1 What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer!

2 Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged;
take it to the Lord in prayer!
Can we find a friend so faithful
who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
take it to the Lord in prayer!

3 Are we weak and heavy laden,
cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge--
take it to the Lord in prayer!
Do your friends despise, forsake you?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In his arms he'll take and shield you;
you will find a solace there.

Worship and Rejoice, 2003

All representative texts • Compare texts • Text size: Regular | Large ^ top

Author: Joseph Medlicott Scriven

^ top

Related Texts

First Line:	What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear
Title:	What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Author:	Joseph Medlicott Scriven (1855)
Meter:	8.7.8.7 D
Place of Origin:	Ireland
Language:	English
Notes:	French translation: "Quel ami fidèle et tendre" by Emile Bonnard; Polish translation: "O przyjaciel to nasz, Jezus" by Paweł Sikora; Spanish translation: "O qué amigo nos es Cristo" by Leandro Garze Mora; Swahili translations: "Yesu ni rafiki yetu", "Yesu kwetu ni Rafiki"
Copyright:	Public Domain
Liturgical Use:	Prayer Songs

Year A, Lent, First Sunday
Year A, Holy Week season, Good Friday
This is recommended for Year A, Holy Week season, Good Friday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #465 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #898.
Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 9 (14)
This is recommended for Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 9 (14) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes.
Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 23 (28)
This is recommended for Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 23 (28) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes.
Year B, Lent, First Sunday
Year B, Holy Week season, Good Friday
This is recommended for Year B, Holy Week season, Good Friday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #465 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #898.
Year B, Holy Week season, Holy Saturday
Year B, Easter season, Sixth Sunday
This is recommended for Year B, Easter season, Sixth Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #465 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #898.
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 11 (16)
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 21 (26)
This is recommended for Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 21 (26) by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #465 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #898.
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 22 (27)
Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 28 (33)
Relates to Hebrews 10 with hints of 1 Samuel 1
Year C, Advent, Third Sunday
This is recommended for Year C, Advent, Third Sunday by 3 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #465.
Year C, Holy Week season, Good Friday
This is recommended for Year C, Holy Week season, Good Friday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #465 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #898.
Year C, Holy Week season, Holy Saturday
Year C, Ordinary Time, Proper 12 (17)
This is recommended for Year C, Ordinary Time, Proper 12 (17) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #465.
Year C, Ordinary Time, Proper 24 (29)
This is recommended for Year C, Ordinary Time, Proper 24 (29) by 4 hymnal lectionary indexes including Glory to God: the Presbyterian Hymnal #465 and Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #898.

English

10 shown out of 1329

French

The Book of Praise #746

French Creole

An Nou Chanté! : Let's Sing! #47

German

Kleines Gesang- und Gebetbuch #103

Korean

The Presbyterian Hymnal: hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs #403

Lao, Hmong

Voices Together #628

Spanish

Welsh

Hymnau a thonau at wasanaeth amrywiol gyfarfodydd y cysegr #340

^ top

Notes

Scripture References:
st. 1 = John 15:15, Eph.6:18, 1 Thess. 5: 17
st. 3 = Matt. 11:28-30

Joseph M. Scriven (b. Seapatrick, County Down, Ireland, 1819; d. Bewdley, Rice Lake, ON, Canada, 1886), an Irish immigrant to Canada, wrote this text near Port Hope, Ontario, in 1855. Because his life was filled with grief and trials, Scriven often needed the solace of the Lord as described in his famous hymn.
Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, he enrolled in a military college to prepare for an army career. However, poor health forced him to give up that ambition. Soon after came a second blow–his fiancee died in a drowning accident on the eve of their wedding in 1844. Later that year he moved to Ontario, where he taught school in Woodstock and Brantford. His plans for marriage were dashed again when his new bride-to-be died after a short illness in 1855. Following this calamity Scriven seldom had a regular income, and he was forced to live in the homes of others. He also experienced mistrust from neighbors who did not appreciate his eccentricities or his work with the underprivileged. A member of the Plymouth Brethren, he tried to live according to the Sermon on the Mount as literally as possible, giving and sharing all he had and often doing menial tasks for the poor and physically disabled. Because Scriven suffered from depression, no one knew if his death by drowning in Rice Lake was suicide or an accident.

Scriven wrote "What a Friend" to comfort his sick mother in Dublin, possibly right after the death of his second fiancee. When asked by a neighbor about his writing of the text, Scriven modestly commented, “The Lord and I did it between us.” The text was published anonymously in Horace Hastings's Social Hymns, Original and Selected (1865), but Scriven was given proper credit in Hastings's Songs of Pilgrimage (1886). Ira D. Sankey (PHH 73) included the text, set to the familiar tune by Charles C. Converse, in his various hymnals (from 1875 on).

Scriven's text clearly arises from his own experiences in life. Although not great poetry, the text has spiritual appeal and an effective repeated phrase, "take it to the Lord in prayer." Because of its simple encouragement to "pray without ceasing," the text is much loved in many circles of Christendom. A collection of his poetry was published in Hymns and Other Verses (1869).

Liturgical Use:
As a hymn of encouragement to pray amid the "sins and griefs" we encounter on our journey of life.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

Hymnary Pro Subscribers
Access an additional article on the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:

What a friend we have in Jesus

Hymnary Pro subscribers have full access to the Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Subscribe now

^ top

Tune

CONVERSE (Converse)

CONVERSE (also "Erie", named for the city in Pennsylvania where the composer lived for many years) was written in 1868 and published two years later in his Silver Wings under the pseudonym Karl Reden. The tune has also been called "Friendship." –Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship

Go to tune page >

All tunes published with 'What a Friend We Have in Jesus'^ top

For Leaders

Bulletin Blurb
Worship Notes
Scores

The life of Joseph M. Scriven, the author of this text, was hard and filled with tragedy. At a young age he had to give up his military ambitions due to poor health. Things were looking up as he prepared to be married, but on the eve before his wedding, his fiancée died tragically in a drowning accident. Scriven moved to Rice Lake, Ontario, and was soon to be wed again. His second fiancée, however, also died suddenly from an illness shortly before the wedding. With no job in a hard economy, Scriven had to live with friends and acquaintances. His volunteer work with the impoverished and sickly as he tried to live as closely to the Sermon on the Mount as possible was frowned upon by those friends, however, and they quickly disassociated themselves from him. Penniless and alone, Scriven was later found drowned in Rice Lake.

It’s a tragic story and, like all tragedies, hard to make sense of. And yet, God still works in and through our stories and losses to fulfill His purposes. Shortly after Scriven moved to Ontario, it’s said he wrote the text “What a Friend” to send back to his mother in Ireland to comfort her in a time of sorrow. After its publication, a neighbor asked if Scriven really did write it, and he replied, “The Lord and I did it between us” (Lutheran Hymnal Handbook). As one of the best-known hymns of comfort, it is certain that the Lord used Scriven to bless many in their own times of sorrow.

Text:

Scriven’s text has remained largely unchanged since it was first published in 1857. The verses build on one another, carrying the same theme throughout: first raising the questions we have about our pain and sorrow, and then answering those questions with assurance of God’s power and love. As the editors in the Psalter Hymnal Handbook write, the text “is not great poetry,” but it has “spiritual appeal and an effective repeated phrase, ‘take it to the Lord in prayer.’” Albert Bailey goes so far as to describe the repetition as “doggerel,” but adds that this provides a good teaching tool (The Gospel in Hymns, 495).

Tune:

The tune CONVERSE, written by Charles C. Converse, in 1868, is almost universally paired with Scriven’s text. It is a tune that speaks of assurance and hope, and with its uplifting melody, there is a temptation to play it too quickly. The text, though, demands adequate consideration as you sing, and though the tune is hopeful, the weight of the words and the sorrow that is implied should give cause to slow the tempo and play with an expressive ear. A good example of this is found in an arrangement by Chelsea Moon and the Franz Brothers.

A good alternative to CONVERSE is the tune BEACH SPRING, attributed to B. H. White, which Emily Brink paired with Scriven’s text in the Psalter Hymnal. This is a far more melancholy tune that brings out the darker side of the text. It would be especially fitting to use this tune when singing this hymn in a time of great sorrow for your congregation; the assurance is needed, but in the context of very real pain. To hear a version of the hymn using this tune, check out this rendition done for a prayer service at Calvin College, on the college’s website under Faith & Worship/LOFT/Archives/LOFT 2010-11/Feb. 6, starting at around 18:00.

When/Why/How:

This is a hymn that acknowledges the pain we experience in life, and then assures us of the comfort we have in Christ. It would be fitting during most services as a hymn of response after the Prayers of the People, or after a time of confession. It’s especially appropriate during a service themed around God’s hand of mercy in times of suffering, or when we need a reminder of our call to pray without ceasing, even when life gets rough. Try pairing this song with the modern hymn, “Jesus Draw Me Ever Nearer,” or a more subdued, slower version of the well-loved contemporary song, “Blessed Be Your Name.”

Suggested music:

Fedak, Alfred. What a Friend We Have In Jesus - for Choir, using the tune SCARLET RIBBONS, a traditional English melody
Hayes, Mark. What a Friend - for Choir
Raney, Joel. What a Friend We Have In Jesus - for Children's Choir and Adult Choir
Wagner, Douglas. What a Friend We Have in Jesus - for Handbells
Funderburk, Duane. Beach Spring - for Piano and Woodwind
Watanabe, Kiyo. Beach Spirig - for Handbells

Laura de Jong,
Hymnary.org

FlexScores are available in the Media section below.

Full Score	Bulletin Score	Bulletin Score (melody only)
PDF MIDI file	PDF	PDF

MuseScore is a free music notation program that can open and edit MusicXML scores.

^ top

Timeline

^ top

Media

FlexScores
Additional Scores
Audio

You have access to this FlexScore.
Download:

Are parts of this score outside of your desired range? Try transposing this FlexScore.

General Settings

Stanza Selection

Voice Selection

Text size

Text size:

Music size

Music size:

Transpose (Half Steps)

Transpose (Half Steps):

Capo

Capo:

Contacting server...

This is a preview of your FlexScore.

Baptist Hymnal 1991 #182

Bulletin Score (melody only) (PDF)
Bulletin Score (PDF)
Full Score (PDF)

The Cyber Hymnal #7090

Adobe Acrobat image (PDF)
Noteworthy Composer score (NWC)
XML score (XML)

The Worshiping Church #622

Full Score (PDF)
Bulletin Score (melody only) (PDF)
Bulletin Score (PDF)

The United Methodist Hymnal #526

Bulletin Score (melody only) (PDF)
Bulletin Score (PDF)
Full Score (PDF)

Worship and Rejoice #473

Bulletin Score (melody only) (PDF, XML)
Bulletin Score (PDF, XML)
Full Score (PDF, XML)

^ top

Page Scans

View Page

Our Great Redeemer's Praise (2022), p.118

^ top

Instances

Instances (901 - 1000 of 1780)

Pages

Exclude 1650 pre-1979 instances

All instances ^ top

Piano/Organ A Mighty Fortress: Piano Meditations on Great Hymns of Faith Lord Be Glorified Praise to the Lord, the Almighty More Piano/Organ...
Choral What a Friend We Have In Jesus What a Friend What a Friend We Have in Jesus More Choral...
Handbells QUIET HYMN MEDITATIONS WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS More Handbells...
PowerPoint WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS (Praise! Our Songs and Hymns 412) WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS (Baptist Hymnal 1991 - 182) WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS (Lift Up Your Hearts 897) More PowerPoint...

User Links

User Links

Discover

Collections

Connect

Search

Collections

Discover

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Contents