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Song: Ten Thousand Angels
Scripture: Matthew 26:47-66
"Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?"

Rarely in the history of hymnology has a composer been led to Christ by his own song, but such was the case with Ray Overholt. God literally picked him up out of the darkness and confusion of the nightclubs and brought him under his loving care, using his song in an unusual manner.

Ray Overholt was born in Middleville, Ohio, in 1924. He seemed destined to a career in music from age eleven, when his dad gave him his first guitar. He rose to a measure of success, hosting his own television show and appearing on Kate Smith’s national program.

In 1958, then thirty-six years of age and at the height of his show-business career, Ray Overholt wrote his now-famous song, “Ten Thousand Angels. Following is his story as he related it to me:

“I had left my television show, ‘Ray’s Roundup’ and entered the nightclub circuit. I was drinking pretty heavily at this time. I began thinking that there must be a better life than the nightclub, show-business whirlwind. I was so intent on changing my lifestyle that I went home and told my wife that I was quitting all of the smoking, drinking, and cursing. I wanted to clean up my own life. Why I was doing all of this
I didn’t know, but I knew there were people praying for me.

One day I thought, 'I’ve written secular songs, but I’d like to write a song about Christ.' I opened the Bible, which I knew very little about, and began to read the portion of Scripture that describes Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, telling Peter to put away his sword. I read where Jesus told Peter that he could ask his Father and he would send twelve legions of angels. I didn’t know at the time that that would have been more than 72,000 angels.

I thought a good title for a song would be 'He Could Have Called Ten Thousand Angels.' I didn’t know what had happened during the life of Christ, so I began doing a little research. The more I read about Jesus, the more I admired him for what he had done. I then remembered that he did this all for me, also.

I was playing in a nightclub in Battle Creek, Michigan, when the Lord impressed me to write the song. I wrote the first verse and put it in my guitar case. I then gave the club my notice that I was quitting. As I opened my guitar case to put my instrument away, one of the fellows saw the music written out and he asked, ‘What are you doing there?’ I told him I was writing a song about Jesus. He asked the title and I told him. He said, ‘It will never go.’ I asked, ‘Why not?’ He said, ‘I don’t even like the title.’ But I finished the song and sent it to a publishing house, which reluctantly agreed to publish it.

Sometime later I found myself singing at a small church. I sang He Could Have Called Ten Thousand Angels. Following my singing, a preacher gave a message that gripped my heart. I knew I needed Christ, so I knelt there and accepted, as my Savior, the One whom I had been singing and writing about.

Ray Overholt became a traveling singer and preacher. He has written a number of other songs, but none so moving as Ten Thousand Angels.

Because Ray was not a Christian at the time, he did realize the horror that he was to describe in his song. No death has ever been more excruciatingly painful than crucifixion -- and the Romans mastered it. By design, death on a cross was not quick. No vital organs were damaged, so it was a slow, agonizing demise. Soldiers would first whip the victim with a scourge and then force him to carry his own crossbeam to the execution site. Once suspended on a cross, the hours in a strained position took its toll on the individual's body, causing difficulty in breathing -- and often suffocation. Some victims died of heart failure. And sometimes a person would hang alive for days, finally succumbing to death as a welcomed relief.

Thousands of men were crucified, for nearly a thousand years. Crucifixion ended in A. D. 337 when Constantine the Great, out of respect for the Son of God and his crucifixion for the whole world, banned this hideous practice forever.

In the lyrics Overholt describes the crucifixion and the suffering that led up to the event that looms larger than life to you and me. His whole theme is the willingness of Jesus to endure, alone, the inhuman ordeal of crucifixion, never once giving thought to calling for the help of the Father or "ten thousand" angels who would come at His beckoning. Overholt says, "He died alone, for you and me."

Reflection:
Before we knew him, God loved us. And so he drew us to himself through his Son, and set us free.

Reader Comments

Thank you for this article. My grandfather, Ray, passed away on September 14, 2008 on his way to sing God's praises once more. What a fitting way for the Lord to call him home

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