“Hide me, O my Savior, hide till the storm of life is past.”

 

"Hide me, O my Savior, hide till the storm of life is past.”

Hymn: “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” – Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
Tunes: MARTYN, REFUGE

This is a plea for Christ to cover us or tuck us away near to the heart of God during a rough patch… a difficult stretch… possibly a more-than-we-can-handle day.

I remember vividly a preacher at a national conference of church musicians telling a room full of worship-planners that we should never sing this hymn again because it encourages us to hide instead of fighting - taking a stand or being “out there” - taking on the world as it comes. I remember my brain screaming, “What?! Is this guy serious?” He may have been a famous pulpiteer with a large following, but on that one, he was wrong.

There are days we need to be covered, drawn nearer, shadowed ‘neath the wings of the Almighty. The storm of life may be as simple as feeling inadequate or insignificant; it may be a family or worldwide tragedy; it may be a prognosis. Whatever it is, we seek refuge in the cleft of the Rock of Ages.

An old southern gospel song that I cherish to this day is “Where Could I Go But to the Lord?” Along with today’s Wesley hymnline and many others like it from scripture and from hymnal-pages, we get the answer to that toe-tapping question: nowhere.

I am not ashamed to tell you that with Corrie Ten Boom, I often cry out to God for a hiding place where my attention is drawn from the momentary or long-term thunder storm or tornadic activity in which I find myself – drawn instead to the hope and eventual joy with which I emerge to forge ahead, at least until the next down pour. I don’t think that makes me less brave; I think it makes me more reliant on the Source of any spiritual bravery I might muster to outlive the storm.

Rock of Ages, let me hide in thee once again… and again, and again. I have nowhere else to go. Amen.

 

[This artwork was used in a STAT magazine article to demonstrate how younger Navajo people have been protective of their elders during the COVID-19 epidemic.]

Hear Fernando Ortega Sing This Hymn (REFUGE tune) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffUsrMJAxeQ

“Out of life’s storms and into thy calm, out of distress to jubilant psalm, Jesus, I come to thee.”

 “Out of life’s storms and into thy calm, out of distress to jubilant psalm, Jesus, I come to thee.”


Hymn: “Out of My Bondage, Sorrow and Night” – William T. Sleeper (1819-1904)
Tune: JESUS, I COME

A couple of storm-tossed Bible stories come to mind here: Jonah’s voyage inside the giant fish, and Jesus’ calming the sea. A hymn or two cross our minds as well: “When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,” and “Master, the tempest is raging; the billows are tossing high.” We study and sing much about turbulence turning to tranquility. There is a good reason for that.

There are few days which do not bring with them a certain amount of disruption, perhaps to the point of upheaval. I feel the earth move under my feet… and there’s a whole lot of shakin’ going on. We want to cry out, “There’s a storm a’ comin’, Auntie Em!” In the midst of those uprisings, monumental and/or minuscule, we are often thrown off course, tossed about or capsized by it all.

Out of whatever it is that disquiets us, we come to Jesus for calm. In all truth, it is not until the post-storm serenity has settled in that we breathe a sigh of relief and utter at least one sincere “Thank you, Jesus” before we move ahead with our day.

My favorite slant on this hymnline comes in the second phrase, indicating that out of distress comes song. For those of us who are musically bent… or have praise leanings… we get that phrase, we chew on it, we ponder it, we agree with it wholeheartedly. Who has not risen from the real or imagined ashes with a song of praise – a psalm, if you will - on their lips? Few, if any. And for most of us, that musical expression may well be one of the great hymns or a fragment thereof.

Basking in calmness seems incomplete unless out of the steadied situation rises the steady beat.

The song you hear may not be “Here I come to save the day!” But it may well be “Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed.” Your response may not be “I did it my way,” but “To God be the glory, great things he hath done” yet again and again!

You may go down fighting, but always come up singing!

 

Enjoy the richness of hearing this hymn sung in Dutch... proof that you don’t need the words to understand the strength of the message.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odnQNEUTroQ

“Praise with elation! Praise ev’ry morning, God’s recreation of the new day!”

“Praise with elation! Praise ev’ry morning, God’s recreation of the new day!”

Hymn: “Morning Has Broken” – Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965)
Tune: BUNESSAN

Elation is one of those super-superlative words: it’s a word we reserve for true excitement… probably about as excited as we can get! So this early morning praise should be done with exhilaration and enthusiasm. [You know that enthusiasm has at its root “theos”; so it originally meant excited about God!] The assigning of worthiness should be unbridled… nothing held back.

I’ve always wondered if the next line is about God’s re-creating a new day for us to enjoy… or if it means that his providing a fresh start for his creation is a form of recreation… like we use the word for something we do in our spare time to re-energize ourselves. I think it could mean either one, and I’m not sure anyone ever pegged down the English author of children’s stories and plays to find out.

On some days I hear it as re-creation… on others, I think of it as recreation. Either way, God is to be praised for providing us with yet another morning – a start-over point.

My favorite moment from the movie version of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR is when the cast realizes they have not handled the Messiah appropriately and begins to board the bus as they sing, “Could we start again please?” Each fresh morning is God’s answer to that question: “Yes, you may.”

From Lamentations 3:22-23 – “The Lord treats us with great loving-kindness, and it is new every morning.”

https://youtu.be/3xkp8aIpYLw

 

 

“Be still, my soul, the Lord is on your side.”

 “Be still, my soul, the Lord is on your side.”

Hymn: “Be Still, My Soul” – Katharina von Schlegel (1752)
Tune: FINLANDIA (Sibelius)

From first to last, this is probably one of THE pithiest hymn texts. It seems as if every phrase is rife with good theology. Grab your hymnal and read through all the stanzas. Please “bear patiently” as we visit this first line.

The theme of this hymn is much like the well-beloved “It Is Well with My Soul” text; it does, however, approach the soul-wellness from several different angles. Like our annual wellness visit to the doctor, we might use it as a check-up of benchmarks.

How many times a week do I say to myself, “Just calm down. Take it easy. Don’t over-react. Keep your cool.” In other words, I have to re-convince my soul to be still. Usually I do this to avoid some unnecessary conflict or outburst. Often this inner-self conversation occurs in traffic!

I need to move beyond the first phrase of this hymnline to remember that I am not alone – that God is on my side. I’ve heard people say that God does not take sides. I think, on the other hand, that God is on everybody’s side... and mine is the one that matters when struggles arise.

“Fear not. The Lord is with you.” This blessed assurance appears often in scripture – so many times that it must be a message God is trying to get through to us! “The Lord is with you.” “The Lord is on your side.” “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Our souls can be stilled by comforting statements like these.

For the next few days, I’m going to repeat this hymnline as needed. It might well be just the prescription the Doctor ordered for my un-ordered life. Join me in that.

“Be still, souls. The Lord is on our side.”


Hear David Archuleta Sing This Hymn - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6xHdlLIMEk

 

 

“Fully absolved through these I am.”

 

 “Fully absolved through these I am.”

Hymn: “Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness” – Nicolaus L. von Zinzendorf (1700-1760)
[Translated by John Wesley]
Common Tunes: ST. CRISPIN, GERMANY


Count Zinzendorf was a German Moravian who wrote several hymns. This one and “Jesus, Still Lead On” are probably his two most famous. He also wrote “Christian Hearts, in Love United” and “O Thou to Whose All-Searching Sight.”

Here, he makes a simple, forthright statement of our redeemed condition: We have been fully absolved “through these”: the blood and righteousness of Jesus. Here is the full hymnline:
            Fully absolved through these I am
            From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.

We Protestants shy away from the use of the term “absolution” because it has been connected with the Roman Catholic Church since the 13th Century. In that tradition, the priest pronounces the penitent one – the sinner – forgiven. By its basic definition, however, it is the act of forgiving someone for wrongs done. We would understand this to be a pronouncement from the High Priest – Christ himself.

FULL absolution… complete pardon…total remission… amnesty without strings attached. In the modern court system, we use the word “exoneration” to express this act.

When I stand and sing with boldness, “Fully absolved through these I am,” there a definite sense of assurance in my voice and in my spirit. It could almost be followed by “no doubt about it.”

May we never lose sight of the significance of the fact that we are absolutely absolved.



This Hymn Sung to the ST. CRISPIN Tune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU23M_vSdkU