Shall We Gather At The River

The Gaither Vocal Band sing “Shall We Gather at the River,” the hymn Robert Lowry wrote in 1864 while he was a Baptist pastor in Brooklyn. He composed it during a summer heat wave and an epidemic, as he thought about the river of life in Scripture. It begins with a question, “Shall we gather at the river, where bright angel feet have trod, with its crystal tide forever flowing by the throne of God?”

The refrain answers, “Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river.” Later verses describe worship on its banks and say that before reaching it, “lay we every burden down; grace our spirits will deliver, and provide a robe and crown.” The river is a “mirror of the Savior's face,” where “saints, whom death will never sever, lift their songs of saving grace.” The last verse says the pilgrimage will end soon, and hearts will quiver “with the melody of peace.”

The river by the throne is Revelation 22:1. The end of tears and death is Revelation 21:4, and believers as pilgrims on earth is Hebrews 11:13.