Click above to listen to the title track A Thousand Years from the album A Thousand Years (2011 Best Neo-Classical Album Nominee – ZMR Awards, and 2011 Notable Sacred Music – Christianity Today). This piece features piano with Jill Haley’s breathtaking English horn. If you enjoy, consider purchasing the song, album download, or CD from Amazon, iTunes, or stantonlanier.com (where sheet music is also available).

Is your soul at peace today?

Mine needs frequent nourishment to experience this peace, a peace that passes all understanding. This is why I composed the melody A Thousand Years. As you listen, reflect on three inspirations, delicately interwoven to “fill your cup” with this peace (note the album cover symbolism in the water flowing out of the piano – by amazing mixed media artist Craig Corbin).

Inspiration #1 – the original melody expressing Psalm 90:4, and the mystery of God’s gift of peace to us: “A thousand years in your sight are like a day or a watch in the night.”

Inspiration #2 – Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star to represent child-like faith, child-like peace we have inside us, but the world has pressed out. In 1781, when Mozart was twenty-five, he composed a set of 12 improvisations on the French melody Ah! Vous Dirai-Je, Maman, which we know as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Inspiration #3 – The great hymn It is Well With My Soul, by Horatio Spafford
Did you know this hymn was written after several traumatic events in Spafford’s life? The first was the death of their only son from Scarlet Fever in 1870. Second was the 1871 Great Chicago Fire which ruined him financially (he had been a successful lawyer and had invested significantly in property in the area of Chicago which was decimated by the great fire). His business interests were further hit by the economic downturn of 1873 at which time he had planned to travel to Europe with his family on the SS Ville du Havre. In a late change of plan, he sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business concerning zoning problems following the Great Chicago Fire. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with a sea vessel, the Loch Earn, and all four of Spafford’s daughters died. His wife Anna survived and sent him the now famous telegram, “Saved alone …”. Shortly afterwards, as Spafford traveled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship passed near where his daughters had died (from Wikipedia).

It Is Well With My Soul

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know,a
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain:
It is well, (it is well),
With my soul, (with my soul)
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

But Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
A song in the night, oh my soul!

Which of the three inspirations brings peace to your soul today?