Oh the glory of Your presence..

"Oh the glory of Your presence" is a contemporary Christian song sung and written by Steve Fry on 1983.

I am blogging about this song because I got stressed with my sister who was nagging and complaining about their issue the whole night and asked me what I think was the right lyrics for the song. Some of her friends also had the same problem that night because of this certain controversy at church about it's lyrics, specifically the chorus of the song which starts with.. "Come and rise.."

The problem is, one elder of the church specifically said it's "Come and rise TO Your rest" coz she heard the "original" girl who sang the song. Some of the members of the music group and my sister, who's incharge of the slides for the lyrics, contradicted with the said line coz for them it didn't make sense and it was on the old acetates that it said FROM there and that became the issue..

Eversince I was a kid, I remember singing this song a couple of times and everytime I blurt out the lyrics, now, it automatically says FROM on that portion, so I think, eversince then, that has been the lyrics that we used at church.

I have recorded the original song of Steve Fry, and converted it to mp3, sung 1983 and it even said FROM there, correct me if i'm wrong.. here's the song:


I have googled and yahooed alot of possible keywords for the right lyrics and came up with 3 possible lyrics for the line:

- Come and rise FOR Your rest - (Ron Kenoly sang this on the first chorus but changed it to from at the succeeding chorus.)
- Come and rise TO Your rest
- Come and rise FROM Your rest

Lastly, I decided to email Steve Fry himself and his wife Nancy Fry emailed back to clear up the said lyrics confusion.. Here's her reply to my email with that:

Dear Rosanna,

I¹m writing in response to your note regarding the line in the song Oh the Glory of your presence. Thanks so much for writing I hope we can clear this up for you. 

First of all the line should be sung ³Arise to Your Rest². Apparently when the original musical came out the book was printed incorrectly and it have been sung incorrectly ever since and several people have noticed the difference. The scripture Steve used to back up ³arise to Your rest² is taken from Solomon¹s prayer in II Chronicles, chapter 6, verse 41. Solomon is praying to the Lord and asks that His eyes be open and His ears attentive to the prayers offered up to Him to arise and come to the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant (See I Chron. 28:2)
The whole issue of God¹s rest is questioned at times. Some theorize that ever since He created the world He has been ³resting²-that we are in the 7th day (Gen. 2:2-3) and are encouraged to ³enter into God¹s rest². Now this is just my own personal thought here, But I believe that as we praise the Lord, He is blessed by that praise He inhabits that praise; and maybe it¹s like when we get so excited we can¹t keep still may He just can¹t keep still
anymore either. We ask Him to arise and join us in celebration of that place of rest that He is already in and we entering into. Rest doesn¹t mean ³sitting² it¹s a place of peace and joy. Again, this paragraph is just my own personal ³considerations² given to you for FREE.
I trust that the change of wording and the scriptures will help you and that you can sing the song with great joy in knowing the main emphasis of the song is to Glory in His Presence!

Grace and Peace,
Nancy Fry


I have the scanned original music and notes sent by Nancy Fry herself on my computer for references.

If it was me to decipher this problem, it's their pride that's coming in the way. Both parties don't want to accept defeat or be shamed. That's one trait everyone should have, to accept defeat that is, coz we aren't right all the time and no one knows everything except God.. So you guys decide who's wrong and right and what's the right lyrics..hehehe Hope this helps to clear your issues. :)