Though written over a hundred years ago, the hymn “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” has a timely message: it’s a plea to God for better times. The persona of this hymn is yearning for an end to trouble, just as many people today want an end to bad news about wars, politics, the environment, and the mental state of teenagers.
This angst over the world’s condition reminds me of something I learned this Easter season. The word “Hosanna” does not mean hooray or yippee. When crowds welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, their cries of Hosanna mean “rescue us” or “save us.”
Just as spring arrives after the gloom of late winter, there is hope in the Messiah’s arrival. Yet Jesus is not what believers expected—a king overpowering the Roman Empire. His gift to the world is far greater than political gain. Jesus gave us eternal life, just as rain waters give life to plants that nourish animals that feed people. And rain waters all of creation. The hymn “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” expresses a wish for a brighter future, with the hope that God will redeem His people once again.
“There Shall be Showers of Blessings,” by D.H. Whittle, appears in 313 known church hymnals, with perhaps its earliest appearance in I. D. Sankey’s Sacred Songs and Solos, published in 1890 (making the hymn public domain). A total of six of Whittle’s songs are in this hymnal, as John Julian wrote in the Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II, published in 1907.
Here are lyrics as published in the African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal.
There shall be showers of blessing:
This is the promise of love;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
Sent from the Savior above.Refrain:
Showers of blessing,
Showers of blessing we need:
Mercy-drops round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead.There shall be showers of blessing,
Precious reviving again;
Over the hills and the valleys,
Sound of abundance of rain. [Refrain]There shall be showers of blessing:
Send them upon us, O Lord;Grant to us now a refreshing,
Come and now honor Thy Word. [Refrain]There shall be showers of blessing:
Oh, that today they might fall,
Now as to God we're confessing,
Now as on Jesus we call! [Refrain]
Daniel Webster Whittle wrote the lyrics to “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” in 1883 when he was 43 years old. After his service in the Civil War—during which he was wounded at the Battle of Vicksburg and marched with General William Tecumseh Sherman’s forces through Georgia—he was awarded the unofficial title Major Daniel Webster Whittle. In his sixty years of life, from November 22, 1840, to March 4, 1901, he was a gospel song lyricist, evangelist, and Bible teacher in his home state of Massachusetts.
While in Chicago, Whittle worked for the Elgin Clock Company and joined his close associate, Dwight Lyman Moody, in evangelical Christian work. Whittle had become a Christian during the war after praying with a fellow soldier before the young man passed away. After the man died, Whittle prayed for his soul. Whittle wrote lyrics for nearly 200 hymns under the pseudonym “El Nathan.” “Showers of Blessing” is one of his most popular compositions.
The tune to “There Shall be Showers of Blessings” was written by James McGranahan, a contemporary of Whittle. McGranahan was raised as a Pennsylvania farm boy who became an evangelist alongside Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey. McGranahan used his musical talents as a gift for winning souls to Christianity. Granahan wrote over forty hymn melodies and was the first to form a male choir to sing gospel songs. James McGranahan and his wife, Addie Vickery, were evangelists in the United States, Great Britain, and Ireland for eleven years.
American music legend Willie Nelson sang “There Will Be Showers of Blessings” and ten other spiritual songs on his 1980 album Family Bible. Nelson loosely quoted Harlan Howard when he said, “Three chords and the truth – that’s what a country song is. There’s a lot of heartache in the world.”
“There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” shares that sentiment. Though its melody and lyrics sound positive on their surface, the song expresses a desire for relief from troubles, as expressed in the lines, “Mercy-drops round us are falling/But for the showers we plead” and “Grant to us now a refreshing/Come and now honor Thy Word.” “There Shall Be Showers of Blessing” is a song of hope for better times. The small “mercy-drops” are not enough to sustain people. We need a downpour, a shower, of God’s grace.
Another icon of popular culture, country singer and entrepreneur Jimmy Dean, recorded “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” in 1957 on his Columbia Records album, Jimmy Dean’s Hour of Prayer. Jimmy Dean was a country music singer in the 1950s-1960s who branched out into acting: he hosted multiple radio and television variety shows.
A born entrepreneur, his greatest financial success came in 1965, when he bought his cousin’s hog farm and turned it into the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company. Jimmy Dean famously said in one of his commercials, “Sausage is a great deal like life. You get out of it about what you put into it.”
Reader’s Digest also reports Dean using an old saying when reflecting on his career: “I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” Amid his fame, Jimmy Dean always saw himself as a poor farm boy from Texas who worked hard at his chores and first loved music at his Baptist church.
“I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing.” (Ezekiel 34:26)
Ezekiel pronounces these words as a prophecy from the Lord to Israel’s leaders—whom he calls Israel’s “shepherds”—who are not managing to keep God’s people from sinning. In Ezekiel 34:10, he prophecies, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock.” The Lord is dismayed because “You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally” (Ezekiel 34:4). The Lord condemns the leaders of his Hebrew people, floundering in their faith in the Promised Land.
In Ezekiel 34:11-12, there is hope when Ezekiel says, “For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.”
Pastor J. Mike Minnix preached a sermon on the song “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” where he highlights this point: “The Spirit of God dwells in us, and to experience the fullness of His Spirit, we need to look at where we are in our walk with Him. He loves to send spiritual rain and He has proven that in the past.”
There have been dark times in American history when people’s faith wavered, and there was continual trouble in the world. There have been many times of war and great political divisions. In my lifetime, I witnessed the generation gap between those who experienced World War II and those living during the Vietnam War. These wounds were healed by living water poured out in the form of God’s love. In part, healing came from the Jesus Movement of the 1970s. God will send the rain again: there will be showers of blessing.
We can prepare for God’s showers of blessing, as Hosea 10:12 states: “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for [it is] time to seek the LORD, till he come and rains righteousness upon you.” Hosea writes in a down-to-earth style, confident that the Lord will bless us in the future. “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth” (Hosea 6:3).
Click on this link to hear a 300-voice choir sing “There Shall Be Showers of Blessings” with piano accompaniment.
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