Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus or also known as The Heavenly Vision, is a song written and composed by Helen Howarth Lemmel. The hymn was inspired by Isabella Lilias Trotter, a missionary to Algeria. Lilas was writing about the challenges of focusing whilst living with tons of choices to choose. The song gave meaning about moving life in the right direction.

Today, the song’s chorus is vastly known, and become a standard song in different hymnals. Lemmel published the song in England in 1918 as pamphlet. It was then included in the 1922 collection — Glad songs. The hymn was also a part in the 1924 American collection called Gospel Truth in Song. From there, it was reprinted widely in so many collections.

The Christian band called, Newsboys, included the song on their album Not Ashamed, and released a music video of it. In 2001, Michael Smith, featured the song on his live worship album called Worship. Alan Jackson, a country artist, recorded the hymn for the funeral of his father-in-law in 2005. And, it became the inspiration for his gospel album — Precious Memories — in 2006.

The hymn’s refrain was used in the Christian song, "Center" by Charlie Hall and Matt Redman. Eleventyseven, a Christian punk pop band, also covered the hymn on their Good Spells EP in 2013. And lastly, in 2018, Lauren Daigle ( a Christian singer) recorded “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”, on her album called Look Up Child.