Peace Like A River: A Song History
"I've Got Peace Like a River" is catalogued at Hymnary.org as an African American spiritual whose time and place of origin are unknown.[1] The site's notes suggest the central image may come from Isaiah 66:12, and its list of related scripture also includes Isaiah 48:17-18.[1] Hymnary's featured-hymn notes call it easy to pick up and fit for singers of any age, and propose a handbell or handchime setting as a way to give younger players a part.[2]
John Frederick Kensett, Hudson River Scene, oil on canvas, 1857. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.
The song is well represented in hymnals: Hymnary.org indexes it in about sixty, the earliest dated listing there being from 1971, and it has since appeared in books ranging from the 1975 Baptist Hymnal and the 1990 Presbyterian Hymnal to the African American Heritage Hymnal of 2001 and Glory to God of 2013.[1] Maureen Sellers includes it, with separate melody and harmony parts, in Simply Duets, a 123-page book of older songs arranged as mountain dulcimer duets in DAD tuning, published by Fingers Of Steel.[3]
Sources
- Hymnary.org: "I've Got Peace Like a River".
- Hymnary.org: "Featured Hymn: I've Got Peace Like a River".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Maureen Sellers, Simply Duets".
- Image: John Frederick Kensett, Hudson River Scene, oil on canvas, 1857. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.