I got to hear a wonderful woman named Irene McCary, who came to my church, not to preach and not to sing, but to recite religious poetry that she had collected and memorized.  This is a lost art.  I was always impressed when my mother recited poetry that she had memorized in school.  Irene was animated and excellent with her delivery.  I bought her little book of poems and found the one in it that I had really liked when Irene shared it.  It was called Daniel in the Lions’ Den.  The author was unknown.  I thought this poem would make a great song, so I put it to music.  This was the easiest song to put to music because I just had one melody for all the verses like a regular song.  Putting whole chapters from the Bible to music is much harder since it is not in poetic form and the melody must change to fit the words or the words must be crammed into fitting a set melody.  The hard part of this song was memorizing all the verses, but repetition was my friend.

As I was learning it, I began to think that it would make a really nice children’s story.  I thought it would be nice to have a prop, so I went to the mall and found a store that just happened to have this lion puppet that you see in the pictures.  Later, after I had my 2 children, I found other lion puppets and lions that I added to the story to make it more fun.  At the end of each verse, I would bite one of the children listening to the children’s story with the lion.  As my children got older, I had them use puppets to help bite the children.  It was a lot of fun for them and the children getting bitten.  I have one lion that will actually growl and my children especially liked that one.  Unfortunately, I have no videos of me singing this song to children.  I found one dark picture that someone sent me that isn’t worth sharing.

In June of 2020, during the Covid- 19 pandemic, the Redding Church was able to hold services again, but with social distancing rules in place, the children were not allowed to come up front for their story.  I had to modify the song and bite myself with the lion.  This song was videoed, so now you can see it in the following video.  I hope you will be blessed.  I will include the words of the song below the video.

 

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Daniel in the Lions’ Den

Words by author unknown. Music by Tamara Luevano and accompaniment by Ritchie Carbajal.

Daniel stood in the Lions’ Den,
But he wasn’t the least afraid,
‘Cause God had closed the lions’ mouths;
He answered when Daniel prayed.
But I think he heard those lions growl!
From the mouths that God closed tight,
For they looked at him with their hungry eyes,
But they weren’t allowed to bite!

All night long they paced that den,
On their great big restless feet,
For they were starved and the food was there.
But they weren’t allowed to eat.
The saliva dripped from their hungry mouths,
And their stomachs hurt all night,
And they looked at him with their hungry eyes,
But they weren’t allowed to bite!

Daniel prayed in the lions’ den.
He prayed there all night through,
And just as soon as it was light,
The king came down there, too.
And Daniel cried: “An angel closed
The lions’ mouths last night,
So they looked at me with their hungry eyes,
But they weren’t allowed to bite!

And the king was glad, and the king rejoiced
When he heard what Daniel said,
And he ordered all those wicked men
To be thrown in the den instead.
Then the lions leaped and lions roared,
And it was an awful sight,
For God had opened the lions’ mouths,
And they were allowed to bite!

 

If you really liked this song, you can download it and other songs from my album on Bandcamp for a donation to help support my ministry.  Click the Donate button at the bottom.  

 
Daniel in the Lions’ Den

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