What the Hymn "I Need Thee Every Hour" Means to Joey Feek

Hymns are important to us because, over the years, they have provided comfort for many Christians over their most difficult times.  The same can be said of Joey Feek.  Joey is one half of the Christian country music duo Joey + Rory.  Currently Joey is battling terminal cervical cancer.  According to her husband Rory, she may not have too many days before seeing Jesus.  Over her entire ordeal, she has had some very trying times; many of which were made a little easier with the singing of hymns. 

This is why Joey + Rory have made a hymns album to be released on Valentine's Day entitled Hymns that Are Important to Us. The album was recorded in between some of Joey Feek's treatments. Many of the sessions took place in their Atlanta-area hotel room, while others occurred at their house or "wherever and whenever she felt up to singing." 

"A lot has taken place in a year's time, but through it all, these songs have given me such strength," she states. "They've given me such hope, and they give me something to look forward to. I think that a lot of times, when we don't know what to say ... you don't know what to pray ... you don't know how to even begin ... I think that's, for me, where these hymns have come into play so much."

Feek uses "I Need Thee Every Hour" as an example, recalling when she woke up in the middle of the night two days after her surgery.

"I'm hooked up to every machine possible; and out of just complete thankfulness that I came through, I remember having the strength to sit up enough, and my hands just elevated over my head, and I sang [the hymn], 'I need Thee, oh, I need Thee, every hour, I need Thee,'" she recounts. "Every hour, He got me through ... and it was hard, and I needed Him every hour, and I still do to this day - there are days that are just hard.

"[This song] has got us through so much at every hour that we needed Him ... He continues to watch over us and take care of us," Feek continues. "People every day who don't have cancer who are dealt with trials or family issues or whatever it might be ... we need Him. It doesn't matter what it is, and when we think that we can get by on our own, we're so wrong."

This hymn was originally written by Annie Sherwood Hawks (1835-1918) who was a New York native.  Hawks displayed a gift for verse at the early age of 14, contributing poems on a regular basis to a variety of newspapers. Though she composed over 400 hymn texts, "I Need Thee Every Hour" is the only hymn of hers that is still sung today.

Following her marriage to Charles Hawks in 1859, much of Hawks' life centered on the domestic aspects of rearing three children. She was a member of Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., where Dr. Robert Lowry, a prominent writer of gospel songs, was her pastor. Lowry encouraged the gift that he saw in Hawks' poetry. 

Hawks writes, "One day as a young wife and mother of 37 years of age, I was busy with my regular household tasks during a bright June morning [in 1872]. Suddenly, I became so filled with the sense of nearness to the Master that, wondering how one could live without Him, either in joy or pain, these words were ushered into my mind, the thought at once taking full possession of me -- 'I Need Thee Every Hour. . . .'" 

Lowry added a refrain as he wrote the music for the hymn. 

Ira Sankey, the great revival musician for Dwight Moody, used this hymn at the National Baptist Sunday School Association Convention the same year, 1872. It then appeared in Royal Diadem for the Sunday School, an 1873 collection compiled by Lowry and William Doane.

The phrase "I need thee" is at the center of the intimacy expressed in this hymn. Its persistent repetition is a common device used by hymn writers of the era. With the refrain added by Lowry, Hawks' hymn pleads "I need thee" 20 times when all five stanzas are sung!  

 

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