A hymn and its story
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
Words and music by Helen H. Lemmel, 1922
The cure for a heart weighed down by the world is not to try harder but simply to look, to turn your eyes upon Jesus until the rest grows strangely dim.
The story behind it
Helen Howarth Lemmel was a singer and teacher who, in 1918, was given a tract by a missionary friend. One line in it arrested her: 'So then, turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face, and you will find that the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness.' She later said the words gripped her, and within minutes the chorus of this hymn came to her almost complete.
Lemmel herself later lost her sight, yet she kept writing and teaching songs of Christ. The hymn she left the Church is a simple, powerful instruction for a distracted, anxious heart: not 'try to feel better,' but 'look.' Fix your gaze on Jesus, full in the face, and the things of earth that loom so large will grow, not by force but by comparison, strangely dim.
The words
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There's light for a look at the Saviour,
And life more abundant and free!
The Scripture behind it
Why it still moves us
Much of our trouble comes from staring at the wrong thing, at fears, at failures, at everything we cannot fix. This hymn offers a startlingly simple remedy that matches the command of Hebrews 12: 'Looking unto Jesus.' It does not deny that the soul is weary and troubled; it just points the eyes somewhere else. The things of earth do not shrink because they stop mattering, but because, in the light of his glory and grace, they finally take their true, smaller size.
Sing it, and mean it
A hymn is a prayer you can carry in your chest. The people who wrote these did not write from a stage; they wrote from shipwreck and sickbeds, from ordinary faithful mornings, and handed us words for the days we cannot find our own. You do not have to sing well. You only have to lift it, and mean it, to the One it is about.
Meet the One these hymns are aboutWorship in The Living BreadFix your eyes on himRead Hebrews 12Jesus Christ is Lord.
Frequently asked questions
- Who wrote Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus?
- Helen Howarth Lemmel wrote both the words and music in 1922, inspired by a line from a tract: 'turn your eyes upon Him... and the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness.'
- What is the story behind Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus?
- In 1918 a missionary friend gave Lemmel a tract urging believers to be so occupied with Christ that the world grows dim. The words gripped her, and the chorus came to her almost at once. She later lost her sight but kept writing songs of Christ.
- What does 'the things of earth will grow strangely dim' mean?
- It means that when we fix our attention on Jesus, earthly worries and desires lose their oversized grip, not because they vanish, but because in the light of his glory and grace they take their true, smaller place.