Ninety years of world-wide popularity have established the gospel song “I Will Sing of My Redeemer” as part of our musical heritage.
Less well known, however, is the miraculous legend of how it was preserved for the future.
The composition was found in a piece of baggage rescued from a fiery train wreck on the day of December 20, 1876. The poem’s author, 38-year-old Philip P. Bliss, has been traveling with his wife to Chicago to fulfill an engagement at D. L. Moody’s Tabernacle.
Near Ashtabula, Ohio a bridge collapsed and the train plunged into an icy river bed. It is said that Bliss survived the fall and climbed out through a coach window only to return, looking for his wife. Reunited, they died together in the flaming wreckage.
—Cliff Barrows
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I Will Sing of My Redeemer.[1]
1 I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross He suffered,
From the curse to set me free.
2 I will tell the wondrous story,
How my lost estate to save,
In His boundless love and mercy,
He the ransom freely gave.
3 I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His heav’nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me,
Son of God, with Him to be.
Chorus Sing, O sing of my redeemer!
With His blood He purchased me;
On the cross He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt and made me free.
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