'Common Ground' Song 116 ‘Spirit of the living God’
Words & music: Daniel Iverson © Birdwing Music/EMI
YouTube recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J3lrSFEnHQ
Featured image: Altar canopy, Whalley Abbey © Stephen Craven
If Tuesday’s song (Jubilate, everybody) was something of a ‘golden oldie’ among modern worship songs, today’s is even more so. Stemming from the early days of the Charismatic movement in 1963, this simple chorus has been a favourite to more than one generation. Again, I have known it since student days. It is usually sung in unison, but the arrangement in ‘Common Ground’ is a four-part harmony. It can also be used as kind of mantra in personal prayer.
There are four lines of music in the tune, three of which are set to the words ‘Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me’. The third line is different, and I know at least three versions of the words for it! ‘Common Ground’ goes with the one I first learnt: ‘Break me, melt me, mould me, fill me’. It expresses a desire to be changed: to have my self-will broken, and to be remoulded in the way God intends, to be in right relationship with Him (perhaps with implied reference to the parable of the Potter in Jeremiah). The version linked above uses an alternative: ‘Melt me, mould me, fill me, use me’. The difference is slight, but the intention is radically different: not to be changed for my own benefit, but so that God can use me.
This apparently slight difference in wording could be seen as emblematic of two distinct approaches to evangelical Christianity, which sometimes lead to culture wars within the wider church: is the role of the Holy Spirit, or for that matter the role of the Church, to grow individuals in their own faith, or to make disciples who will do God’s work in the world? This is sometimes framed as a ‘faith and works’ debate: are we saved (made complete in Christ) by our beliefs and lifestyle, or by our actions towards others? Of course, both are important, and a Christianity which emphasises one to the total neglect of the other is a warped form of faith indeed. But where the balance of teaching lies in any one congregation will determine its character, worship and actions.
Footnote: the featured image is of a piece of modern art depicting the descent of the Holy Spirit, in the chapel of a retreat house in Lancashire. It was made to be suspended above the altar, where in the Eucharist or communion service the priest invokes the Holy Spirit to make the bread and wine be to us the body and blood of Christ. That is how I photographed it in 2015. At a return visit in 2022, it had been moved and mounted on the wall behind the altar instead of suspended above it. The wording, difficult to read in this thumbnail, is ’Forth from the Father he comes, with his sevenfold mystical dowry pouring on human souls infinite riches of God’.
And this was the words that came to me when I was walking the Labyrinth at Scargill nearly a year ago.
SCARGILL MOVEMENT -CANDLEMAS 2025
Spirit of the Living God
Fall afresh on me
Spirit of the Living God
Fill me, Refresh me
Spirit of the Living God
Guide me, Lead me
Melt me, Mould me
Spirit of the Living God
Shine through me
Bless me, Renew me
Spirit of the Living God
Hold me, Heal me
Forgive me, Teach me
Spirit of the Living God
Console me, Refresh me
Feed Me, Nourish me
Spirit of the Living God
Rescue me, Love me
I trust thee