January 26, 2021 (Tuesday)
Ken Medema is a song writer, composer, recording artist, and story-teller through music. Blind from birth (1943), Ken began playing the piano at age five and studied classical music by reading Braille. I attended a conference in Fort Worth years ago, and he provided music for the meeting, which lasted about 3 days and featured a number of speakers. After each speaker concluded his message, Medema created a song about the speaker’s topic, then and there, and sang it, accompanying himself on the piano. The audience was flabbergasted, but so very blessed by each song created on the spot in that very room.
He has this to say about “Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying.” “One night in 1970, I was with a youth group. We started talking about a young man who was in the hospital and who really needed our prayers. In the middle of our prayer time, the idea for this little chorus came to me. I started humming, then singing. Soon the kids were mumbling along with me. We sang that chorus, “Lord, listen to your children praying,” several times over. Then I started adding verses, and the kids quickly joined me in singing the new words. So it was a song born out of our concern and prayer for a friend.”
LORD, LISTEN TO YOUR CHILDREN PRAYING
Words: Ken Medema
Music: Ken Medema
1970
Lord, listen to your children praying
Lord, send your Spirit in this place
Lord, listen to your children praying
Send us love, send us power, send us grace
Lord, listen to your children praying
Lord, send your Spirit in this place for me
Lord, listen to your children praying
Send us love, send us power, send us grace
Something’s gonna happen
Like the world has never known
When the people of the Lord
Get down to pray
Doors are gonna swing open
And the walls come a-tumbling down
When the people of the Lord
Get down to pray
When the people of the Lord
Oh, the people of the Lord
When the people of the Lord
Get down to pray
Doors are gonna swing open
And the walls come a-tumbling down
When the people of the Lord
Get down to pray
Lord, listen to your children praying
And, Lord, send your Spirit in this place
Lord, listen to your children praying
Send us love, send us power, send us grace
He’s gonna take over
He’s gonna take control
When the people of the Lord
Get down to pray
He’s gonna move that mountain
Gonna make the waters roll
When the people of the Lord
Get down to pray
You’re gonna know it
When the Lord stretches out His hand
When the people of the Lord
Get down to pray
He’s gonna be a brand new song
A victory in the land, yeah
When the people of the Lord
Get down to pray
Lord, listen to your children praying
Lord, send your Spirit in this place
Lord, listen to your children praying
Send us love, send us power
Won’t You send us grace