Give me Oil in My Lamp
Give Me Oil in My Lamp
Voicing: SAB
Accompaniment: Piano
Text: traditional, adapted by Kyle Pederson
Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burnin’
Give me oil in my lamp I pray
Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burnin’
Keep me burnin’ ‘til the break of day
And when the oil runs low, come in, Lord, and fill it up high
And when my lamp runs dry, come in, Lord, and fill it with oil
Give me joy in my heart, keep me singin’
Give me joy in my heart, I pray
Give me joy in my heart, keep me singin’
Keep me singin’ ‘til the break of day
And when the joy runs low, come in, Lord, and fill it up high
And when my lamp runs dry, come in, Lord, and fill it with oil
Give me peace in my soul, keep me restin’
Give me peace in my soul I pray
Give me peace in my soul, keep me restin’
Keep me restin’ ‘til the break of day
And when the peace runs low, come in, Lord, and fill it up high
And when my lamp runs dry, come in, Lord, and fill it with oil
Program Note:
I remember singing Give Me Oil in My Lamp way back in preschool...and really the only context in which I had ever heard this song performed was in a youth choir or around a church campfire. I wanted to re-imagine this iconic melody and breathe some new life into it, that it might resonate with older and more experienced choirs (and give their accompanists something fun to sink their teeth into).
The most frequent attribution of this tune is as an old Quaker hymn. I have also quoted a bit of the melody of the well known spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, and it weaves its way throughout the arrangement as a counter melody.
The text of the piece is an invitation to joy and peace--inviting it into our own lives and extending it into the lives of others. The metaphor in the piece (oil in a lamp) is one that's been around for at least a couple thousand years. In short, without oil, an oil lamp can't light. Singers are invited to consider, "What is the oil that fuels you? Are you fueling up with joy, hope, compassion, peace, and love?....or are you fueling up with judgement and hate that will extinguish your light?" In Christian thought, the "oil" is typically thought to be the Holy Spirit...so the invitation to put oil in our lamps can take on a spiritual dimension. And there are several passages in both old and new testament where this metaphor of oil/lamps are explored. But the metaphor also works outside of "faith-based" circles and needn't be/seem exclusionary, since almost all cultures used oil lamps at one time or another.