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The live studio album, “Dwell Within,” will be released on all streaming platforms May 23.
Dwell Within features a collection of hymns arranged by Hil Lyons and Captain Erin Wikle that testify to the eternality of God whose steadfast love and faithfulness transcend time.
The album’s title is taken from “‘Mid All the Traffic,” the traditional song set to the American folk melody, Shenandoah. This arrangement features newly inspired lyrics that speak to the call to “quiet soul and self,” to seek stillness before Jesus, perhaps the most challenging pursuit of life in Christ.
‘Mid all the traffic of the ways
Turmoils without, within
Make in my heart a quiet place
And come and dwell within
“Just as Jesus withheld nothing in sharing his life with us, would we seek to share the whole of our lives with him,” Wikle said. “May this be our response to our God whose love abounds for humankind, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:17), who is trustworthy beyond compare, and desires to dwell deeply within.”
Featuring the simplicity of piano and voice, the collection includes the following hymns: “‘Mid All the Traffic,” “It Is Well,” Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust In Jesus,” and “His Eye Is on The Sparrow.”
Hil Lyons is the featured pianist throughout the album, with his work featured prominently on “His Eye Is on The Sparrow,” an instrumental track.
Wikle wrote new lyrics and music comprising the bridges in, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” and “‘Mid All the Traffic,” as a means to reimagine traditional hymns. “To me, it’s about highlighting the contrast of traditional and modern, yet the song not losing any integrity in the process,” Wikle said of her first full album.
The album will also be offered as a limited-edition disc during a Salvation Army Western Territory event, the “Testify” Congress, held June 14–16 in Pasadena, California.
Accompanying the songs are devotions written by Major Darren Norton, Reverend Diane Ury, Lt. Colonel Lisa Smith, and Captain Christopher Wikle. The devotions will be printed in the disc booklet and online.
Following is one of the devotionals, reprinted with permission:
“‘Mid All the Traffic” by Captain Christopher Wikle
We find ourselves when we give ourselves to God. The paradox of emptying ourselves to be filled, of giving to receive, of making ourselves slaves to find ourselves freed manages to sneak up on us every time.
However well acquainted we are with the truth that when we give to God we will receive more from him in return, we are certain to go through trials severe enough to cause us to forget that reality. The more pain we experience in this life, the less we are able to look beyond the edge of our nose. The promise of return for the treasure we entrust to Jesus becomes hazy in light of real loss. Inevitably, we are faced with yielding to Christ with only a shaky impression that letting go of what we hold dear will be of greater reward.
The act of true surrender cannot be short-circuited by the selfish realization that we are trading up—God will see to that.
This brave act of devotion resembles the life of Christ and is treasured by the Father. Giving that which is dearest to us in the moment of fierce trial is only possible when one has practiced stillness in the presence of God—when acclimatized to breathing in grace and breathing out trust in the quiet moment.
Find “Dwell Within” wherever you stream music.
Do Good:
- Listen to “Dwell Within” on your favorite streaming platform starting May 23.
- You may think your day is too filled to the brim for anything more…but it’s in his presence that you find rest. Where you are assured God is doing a beautiful work in you. Where you find a way to love—because he first loved you. Get inside the Caring Magazine Scripture Study Collection and find a suite of free, printable Bible studies to guide you through topics from New Beginnings Through Forgiveness, to Understanding our Imago Dei or Life Hacks From David.
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