In the Garden

Alan Jackson sings “In the Garden,” the hymn C. Austin Miles wrote in 1912 after reading about Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb, and it appeared on his 2006 collection of gospel standards. The singer enters alone, “while the dew is still on the roses,” and hears a voice, “the Son of God discloses.” The setting is quiet and early in the morning.

The chorus is the center of the hymn. “And He walks with me and He talks with me and He tells me I am His own, and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.” The second verse admits that he would like to stay: “I'd stay in the garden with Him, though the night around me is falling.” But Christ sends him back, since “He bids me go through the voice of woe, His voice to me is calling.” The prayer time ends with a task waiting outside the garden.

A shepherd calling his own by voice is John 10:3. Joy in God's presence is Psalm 16:11, and walking with God in the garden recalls Genesis 3:8.