I Know That My Redeemer Lives
136

Text: Samuel Medley (1738–1799)
Music: Lewis D. Edwards (1858–1921; LDS)
Tune name: HE LIVES

Edward P. Kimball, composer and Tabernacle organist, had such a testimony of the power of this hymn that he offered this promise: “When doubt, discouragement, or any foe of the spirit of God manifests itself, pray and then sing or even play this truly inspired song and a new light to cheer and bless will kindle your soul” (quoted in George D. Pyper, Stories of Latter- day Saint Hymns, 134).

Samuel Medley, who wrote this text in 1775, was fond of alliteration and repetition in his hymns. Twenty- six of the thirty- two lines of “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” begin with the same two words: “He lives.”

Repetition is not necessarily a fault in a hymn. Sometimes it is the very repetition that conveys the earnestness of the hymn’s pleading or the conviction of its message. Consider, for example, “Nearer, My God, to Thee” (no. 100), “Count Your Blessings” (no. 241), “I Need Thee Every Hour” (no. 98), and “If You Could Hie to Kolob” (no. 284). Each of these hymns, too, is characterized by a key phrase repeated many times, and the repetition adds emphasis to the message.

The text of “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” appeared in Emma Smith’s 1835 hymnal as seven short verses. When the short verses were combined to form long ones, the last verse needed to be repeated in order to fit the new musical format. But here again, repetition is a strength instead of a weakness; repeating the words in the last verse is like adding an additional witness or an extra “amen” to the testimony expressed in the hymn.

Two talented Latter- day Saints from among our early composers, George Careless and Edwin F. Parry, wrote musical settings for “I Know That My Redeemer Lives.” But a melody by another Latter- day Saint, Lewis D. Edwards, published in 1901, has been the one to strike the right emotional chord among Latter- day Saints. Comments George D. Pyper, “If Samuel Medley had been here to direct he could not have suggested a tune more appropriate than this one, for Edwards caught Medley’s style by giving accent to the key words which the hymnist loved to repeat in his refrains. As far as the Latter- day Saints are concerned, Edwards has linked his name with Medley’s for all time” (Stories of Latter- day Saint Hymns, 136–37).

Writing in the 1920s, George D. Pyper noted a response to this hymn that continues today: “To hear this loved song rendered by an assembly of devoted Latter- day Saints is a spiritual baptism. It becomes a mass- testimony of many of the truths of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ” (135).