When I Fall on My Knees

Much has been written about the coded language in the spirituals used to convey messages and information between slaves without their owners' knowledge. This secret communication comes together with other elements to play an important role in the development of one of the most known and sung spirituals today, "Let Us Break Bread Together on Our Knees."

During slavery some African Americans worshiped openly among themselves and others worshiped in the churches of their owners. But laws in most southern states kept them from worshiping secretly by themselves where their prayers, songs, sermons, and discussions could not be monitored. Sunday was the one day of rest for the slave — the only day not given to labor. Because of this, the white owners feared that any act of protest or rebellion would take place on Sunday. Some states even passed laws requiring white men to bring guns to Sunday worship.

Nevertheless, the slaves managed to gather in secret for worship, prayer, singing, support, fellowship, and sharing of news. They sometimes met in an isolated building, but more often they met outside in the woods, in a clearing, or a distant field. Word of the meeting could be spread only by word of mouth since they were forbidden by law to learn to read or write. Some songs and special words and phrases within songs were used as a secret means of communicating notice of a meeting, and this spiritual is one of those songs. What is now the third stanza in our hymnal (no. 618), "Let us praise God together on our knees," once existed by itself and was used in Virginia as such a song. Slaves who sang it and slaves who heard it understood that a meeting was planned for that night, and they would gather together.

The second element that forms this spiritual is the two-line refrain, "When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun, O Lord, have mercy on me." John B. Lovell, Jr., in Black Song: The Forge and the Flame (New York: Macmillan, 1972; pp. 263-4) claims that this spiritual's "rising sun" is a metaphor for spiritual light, and that the human action of looking up and raising one's face to the heavens is an expectation of receiving whatever gift or bounty God may provide.

In my own youthful ignorance, arrogance, and inexperience as a church musician, I read those words and thought to myself, "We are not Muslims. We do not bow and face Mecca (the eastern rising sun) when we pray, so I will change these words," and for a few times my congregation sang, "When I fall on my knees with my face to the Risen Son," and I thought that that was surely what the spiritual writer meant to sing.

William Farley Smith, consultant to the 1989 Hymnal Revision Committee in African American worship and music, once told me that he believed this phrase had its origins in the daily experience of the slaves. It was common for them to assemble very early in the morning, prior to sunrise, and walk together to a distant field or location where they were to labor that day. As the sun rose, it began to dispel not only the dark but also the chill. Following their cold walk they were given a short rest and a meager breakfast, often consisting only of bread and milk, prior to beginning the long day of work. Dr. Smith believed this act was closely tied to the words of "Let us break bread together ..." and "When I fall on my knees."

There is also an historic recording of this spiritual by the Fisk Jubilee Singers dating from the early years of the 20th century. It includes all three stanzas from our hymnal, but it is prefaced by an introductory section that includes verses from the fourth and fifth chapters of the Book of Revelation, "There were four and twenty elders ..." This is the passage that describes the scene of heavenly worship with the throne, the four living creatures, and the twenty-four thrones and elders, with the elders repeatedly falling on their knees and worshiping the one who is seated on the throne. The origins of this musical preface are unknown.

Following the Civil War, the verses of bread and wine became permanently linked to the "Let us praise God together on our knees" refrain and it became a hymn for Holy Communion. The spiritual's first publication was in 1927, titled "When I Fall on My Knees," in The Second Book of Negro Spirituals by James Weldon Johnson (co-composer of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," see Music Musings #36). Since then it has remained largely unchanged. William Farley Smith's arrangement of the final stanza in our hymnal comes directly from Johnson's 1927 setting. The hymn did not appear in any Methodist hymnal until 1966.

It is a remarkable journey — secret slave meetings, coded language, metaphors in nature, a brief rest and a meager breakfast before a day of hard labor, the Book of Revelation, and Holy Communion. When you sing this hymn next at Holy Communion, don't let those very familiar words fall so lightly from the tongue. There is rich history in our liturgy and song.

For further reading:

Johnson, James Weldon & J. Rosamond Johnson. The Books of American Negro Spirituals. New York: Viking Press, 1969. Reprinted from the original publications of 1925, 1926.

Lovell, John B., Jr. Black Song: The Forge and the Flame. New York: Macmillan, 1972.

Young, Carlton R. Companion to The United Methodist Hymnal. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993.