In 1862, during the US Civil War, General Daniel Butterfield wanted a new melody for “lights out.” And so, without any musical training, he composed one in his head.
Years later, the general wrote, “I called in someone who could write music, and practiced a change in the call of ‘Taps’ until I had it suit my ear, and then . . . got it to my taste without being able to write music or knowing the technical name of any note, but, simply by ear, arranged it.” General Butterfield gave the music to the brigade bugler, and the rest is history.
While there are no official lyrics to the hauntingly familiar strains of “Taps,” here is a commonly accepted version of one verse:
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake, from the sky;
All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.
What a comforting lyric as faithful members of the military are laid to rest! And what hope in the acknowledgment that God is near, even—especially—in death!
At a time when death and evil reigned, the prophet Isaiah anticipated a day when death itself would die. “Your sun shall no longer go down,” he wrote to Israel, “for the Lord will be Your everlasting light” (60:20).
For those who follow Jesus, the strains of “Taps” are not a funeral dirge but a song of hope. “The days of your mourning shall be ended” (v.20). All is well. God is nigh.
— Tim Gustafson
Sunset in one land is sunrise in another.
