"It is Well With My Soul," Story of the Song

Story of the Song, “It Is Well With My Soul”

Today’s piece, “It Is Well With My Soul,” has perhaps one of the most famous and well documented song stories. All the stories agree, and I doubt if I could improve upon it. Thus, I will give an extended quote about the song and then add my personal note which will be very appropriate as we approach the 10 year anniversary of that fateful Day, 9-1-1.

According to Faithclipart.com:

Horatio Spafford (1828-1888) was a wealthy Chicago lawyer with a thriving legal practice, a beautiful home, a wife, four daughters and a son. He was also a devout Christian and faithful student of the Scriptures. His circle of friends included Dwight L. Moody, Ira Sankey and various other well-known Christians of the day.

At the very height of his financial and professional success, Horatio and his wife Anna suffered the tragic loss of their young son. Shortly thereafter on October 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed almost every real estate investment that Spafford had.

In 1873, Spafford scheduled a boat trip to Europe in order to give his wife and daughters a much needed vacation and time to recover from the tragedy. He also went to join Moody and Sankey on an evangelistic campaign in England. Spafford sent his wife and daughters ahead of him while he remained in Chicago to take care of some unexpected last minute business. Several days later he received notice that his family's ship[the SS Ville du Havre] had encountered a collision. All four of his daughters drowned; only his wife had survived. [Spafford was informed of the news by the receipt of telegram from his wife which read, “Saved alone, stop.]

With a heavy heart, Spafford boarded a boat that would take him to his grieving Anna in England. It was on this trip that he penned those now famous words, When sorrow like sea billows roll; it is well, it is well with my soul.

Philip Bliss (1838-1876), composer of many songs including Hold the Fort, Let the Lower Lights be Burning, and Jesus Loves Even Me, was so impressed with Spafford's life and the words of his hymn that he composed a beautiful piece of music to accompany the lyrics. The song was published by Bliss and Sankey, in 1876. [Bliss named the tune: Ville du Havre  after the ill-fated ship.] For more than a century, the tragic story of one man has given hope to countless thousands who have lifted their voices to sing, It Is Well With My Soul. (Inserts are mine.)

The Spaffords later had three more children, one of whom (a son) died in infancy. In 1881 the Spaffords, including baby Bertha and newborn Grace, set sail for Israel. The Spaffords moved to Jerusalem and helped found a group called the American Colony; its mission was to serve the poor. The colony later became the subject of the Nobel prize winning Jerusalem, by Swedish novelist Selma Lagerlöf.

The Georgia Southern University marching band Southern Pride plays the song at the end of each win. 

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, I was at a training course on a federal reservation at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. We learned of the crash into the first tower shortly after breakfast and into the first session of the day. It was decided to abandon the train for a while and watch on giant-screen TVs which had been used to run the PowerPoint presentations.

Then the second tower was hit and we all were overcome with a wide variety of emotions. I, like many, many people, felt the need to call loved ones, so I called my daughter, Amy, then a student at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth. During the phone conversation, I broke down into uncontrollable sobbing. Amy’s firm confidence that God was still in control finally calmed me down and I was able to go on with the conference – which basically broke down after that.

The next night, Wednesday, I needed desperately to go to church, so I went downtown to the First Baptist Church in time for the evening fellowship dinner. I was a little let down to learn that the speaker would talk with us over dinner and it would be a man from the State Baptist Convention giving some sort of useless report. I endured that waiting to see what God was going to do.

And do He did. Sitting at my dinner table was a choir member. He and I had talked about music and how I was a sometimes choir director.  He asked if I would like to attend choir rehearsal as a guest. I readily agreed.

As most First churches of large cities do, they had a great choir, over 200 members. I was issued music like a member and we all took our seats in the choir room.  In a minute, the director came in. He told us to put away our packets that we were not going to have a regular rehearsal. He said let’s sing “It Is Well With My Soul.” We did – all 201 of us. I wept again through all the verses, but I got it. Spafford didn’t know it, but he wrote those words just for my grieving soul.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

And in that moment I knew that it was, in fact, well with my soul.

“Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7, KJV)

Follow now the famous words: 

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Refrain:
It is well (it is well),
with my soul (with my soul),
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Refrain

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Refrain

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

Refrain

And Lord haste the day, when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Refrain

"You'll Come" - The Story of the Song

You’ll Come,” Story of the Song

“You’ll Come,[1]” by Brooke Gabrielle Fraser Ligertwood, known professionally as Brooke Frazer in 2007, is based on Hosea 6, especially vv. 1-3:

¹ “Come, let us return to the LORD.
He has torn us to pieces
   but he will heal us;
he has injured us
   but he will bind up our wounds.
² After two days he will revive us;
   on the third day he will restore us,
   that we may live in his presence.
³ Let us acknowledge the LORD;
   let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
   he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
   like the spring rains that water the earth.”

Hosea is the hard but lovely story in which God commands Hosea, one of His prophets, to live out the metaphor of God’s unending love for us even though we constantly and consistently betray Him. Hosea is told to go and marry Gomer, a woman of ill-repute, which he does. True to her reputation, she continues her unfaithfulness and eventually runs off. Hosea, who has every right to have her put away (divorce) or even stoned as an adulteress, nevertheless, humiliates himself before the people and comes after her – time and time again.

The object of the living metaphor is that though we sink into sin and disgrace, as sure as the sun rises and as sure as the rain falls in Palestine in the summer and winter in the season, God will come after us. He will literally “move Heaven and Earth” to bring us back to Himself.

Brooke Fraser, born in New Zealand in 1983, has been writing and singing Christian music and some light pop music since the early 2000s. She has performed with numerous Australian and Kiwi groups, most notably, Hillsong, which has probably the best known version of this piece.

In 2006, Brooke was led to Africa where she immersed herself in Rwanda, ultimately, with her husband, Scott Ligertwood, adopting a Rwandan orphan, Albertine, about whom she wrote one of her most popular songs of the same name, Albertine, which went double-platinum in 2006. In between her musical concerts, she devotes a great deal of time to fund-raising for the children of Africa.

Hillsong’s version of this beautiful piece may be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RmZFaruXhs

The text reads as follows:

I have decided I have resolved
To wait upon you Lord
My rock and redeemer shall not be moved
I’ll wait upon you Lord

Pre Chorus
As surely as the sun will rise
You'll come to us
As certain as the dawn appears

Chorus
You'll come let your glory fall
As you respond to us
Spirit reign flood our hearts
With holy fire again

Verse 2
We are not shaken we are not moved
We wait upon you Lord
Our Mighty deliverer my triumph and truth
I'll wait upon you Lord

Bridge
Chains be broken
Lives be healed
Eyes be opened
Christ is revealed

---

[1] As a humorous aside, when I first saw this song listed in the program, I misread the title as “Ya’ll Come,” an old country sing used by Alabama’s colorful Governor of the late 1940s and early 1950s, “Big Jim” Folsom as his theme song.

"In Christ Alone" Story of the Song

"In Christ Alone," The story of the song
Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townsend
Copyright © 2001 Kingsway Thankyou Music

Of this modern hymn, the composer, Keith Getty states:

Of all the hymns we have written, this hymn is the most popular wherever we go. Ironically, it is the first hymn we ever penned together

I had a strong very Irish melody that I could imagine a large crowd singing. I wanted it to become a hymn that would declare the whole life of Christ and what it meant. Something that could teach people the foundations of what we believed in Christ, the God who changed all of history and who wants a relationship with each us.

Stuart penned a quite incredible lyric, which the two of us edited, developed and rewrote for a couple of weeks until it became "In Christ Alone".

As well as being a creedal song, it fires people with hope that here is the God who even death cannot hold, "No guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me". 

Getty goes on to quote a particular moving story written in a letter he and Townsend had received from a soldier at war. He quotes: 

I wanted to share a song that has been a real inspiration to me. It is a new hymn written, I believe, a year or two ago but it has the feel of the traditional hymns. I have listened to it almost every night and even tend to sing/reflect on its words on my trips across... It has been an inspiration to me because in each of it verses it reminds me of fundamental principles.

It moves immediately to Christ's burden for those who scorned him. Boy, can I relate. We are losing soldiers here everyday to people that we are trying to help. To know that Christ purposefully gave his life for us helps me to understand that he knows that soldiers are dying and that he is in control.

Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied -
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live

No matter how many times I hear that verse, I get chills up my spine. The picture of Christ standing in victory, the image of sin's grip being broken and the promise that I am his and knowing that he in fact is mine brings him incredibly close to me.

As I drive down the highway with my M-16 pointed out the window and my 9MM pistol tucked in my flak jacket pocket. I can tell you that I feel more secure in claiming the promise "No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand till he returns or calls me home" than I do with that rifle and pistol.

Debra Atkins of “Cross.com” writes in 2004: 

Since its initial creation . . . several versions of “In Christ Alone” have been recorded by artists around the world, and Townsend admits to having a few favorites. “I've heard some wonderful recordings of it. “The Newsboys’ version is really fresh and exciting, and the one done by Alan Asbury is superb,” Townsend says. “But the one that always moves me most is when we recorded it with a congregation of 8,000 at the Stoneleigh Bible Week in England a couple of years ago [2002]. When we finish the third verse, about the resurrection of Christ, there’s an extraordinary burst of praise from the congregation that at the time was overwhelming, and listening back still sends a shiver down my spine.”

Neither Townsend or Getty give us the scriptural text for this hymn, but may I suggest that in the prologue to 1 Timothy, the Apostle, Paul writes, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope. . .” Paul, here by implication means to say that Jesus Christ is not only our hope but He is our “one and only” hope, reminding us of that most often quoted verse, John 3:16, wherein the “Beloved Apostle,” John  says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. NIV.

Paul goes on to say in Romans 5:5, “and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” When we take Jesus as our one and only hope, we cannot be disappointed. Paul, again, in Romans says, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Roman 8:38,39.

A lovely setting of “In Christ Alone” has been recorded by Natalie Grant. Note the solitary Irish flute and fiddle, reminiscent of the old Gaelic feel of the tune referenced by Townsend.  See the video at the following: http://www.gettymusic.com/hymns-inchristalone.aspx.

The text follows:

In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow'r of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand.

"Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me" Story of the Song

“Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me” Story of the Song

“Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me” has been a staple of hymn singing since around 1830. The words were written by Augustus Toplady with the tune by Thomas Hastings. Coinciding with the American Declaration of Independence, Toplady penned the words in 1776.

Toplady, born in Farmingham, England 1740, was a sickly child disliked by his relatives. However, says Robert J. Morgan in Then Sings My Soul, “Augustus was interested in the Lord. . . By the age of 12, he was preaching sermons to whoever would listen. At 14, he began to write hymns.” A staunch Calvinist, he wrote an article about God’s forgiveness, “intending it as a slap at [John] Wesley [for his Arminian theology.]” Morgan reports that Toplady ended the article with an original poem, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me.” “Oddly,” says Morgan, “it is remarkably similar to something Wesley had written . . . “O Rock of Salvation, Rock struck and cleft for me.”

How did Toplady come to write that poem? John Telford (1851-1936), author of the Methodist Hymnal states: 

Sir Will­iam Hen­ry Wills, in a let­ter to Dean Le­froy, pub­lished in the [Lon­don] Times in June, 1898, says ‘Top­la­dy was one day over­tak­en by a thun­der­storm in Bur­ring­ton Coombe, on the edge of my prop­er­ty, Blag­don, a rocky glen run­ning up in­to the heart of the Men­dip range, and there, tak­ing shel­ter be­tween two mass­ive piers of our na­tive lime­stone rock, he penned the hymn,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

There is a pre­ci­pi­tous crag of lime­stone a hun­dred feet high, and right down its cen­tre is the deep re­cess in which Top­la­dy shel­tered.’

While the text of Toplady’s poem refers mostly to New Testament themes, it has roots in the Old Testament.  “Let the water and the blood, from Thy wounded side which flowed, Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure” is clearly a reference to Jesus propitiatory death on the cross found in John 19:34; this propitiation is a more veiled allusion found in the lyric of verse two, “. . . tears  . . . zeal . . . These for sin could not atone; Thou must save and thou alone. In my hand no price I bring, only to Thy cross I cling.” This line is most likely the answer to Wesley’s Arminianism, commented upon by Morgan, supra. 

However, the motif, “Rock of Ages,” reminds us of the passage in Exodus 33 wherein Moses, after having to intercede for the rebellious Hebrews, seeks a fresh vision from God. Verses 18-21 state:

Then Moses said, “I pray You, show me Your glory!” And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”  But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”  Then the LORD said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by.

The composer, Thomas Hastings (1784-1872) was an American self-taught musician, songwriter, chorister and author of many “how-to” books used in “singing schools.” He is most famous for this tune, Toplady, which set to music Augustus’ poem and was first published in 1831. He penned al­most 1,000 hymn tunes and 600 hymn texts. His son, The Rev. Dr. Thomas Samuel Hastings, who be­came pres­i­dent of Union The­o­lo­gic­al Sem­in­ary, said of him:

He was a devout and ear­nest Christ­ian, a hard stu­dent, and res­o­lute work­er, not lay­ing aside his pen un­til three days be­fore his death.

Story of the Song - "Nothing but the Blood" by Matt Redman - July 31, 2011

Nothing but the Blood by Matt Redman

“Nothing but the Blood” by Matt Redman draws heavily from the standard hymn of the same name by Dr. Robert Lowry. It is off his CD, “Facedown,” a collection of intense worship songs designed to bring the listener and participant into close communion with God.  A bit of a bio of Matt Redman was featured in the July 16 post entitled, “Blessed Be Your Name.”

This week’s feature song falls squarely into the genre of modern hymns as opposed to “gospel songs” in that its focus is squarely vertical from the singer to the Father.

Matt’s website tells us:

With ''Facedown,'' Matt continues to bring to the church prolific songs for corporate worship. ''Worthy, You Are Worthy,'' with Chris Tomlin and ''Nothing but the Blood,'' a potent cross-centered proclamation of cleansing and restoration, are destined to give voice to worshippers around the globe.

Matt tells us nothing about his thoughts concerning the song, but Bill Dagle writes about the old hymn of the same name by Dr. Lowry (1826-1899). I suspect Matt had the same text in mind.

Dagle writes:

Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, would write these words, "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." (Romans 3:25) The emphasis of this verse is on the shed blood that satisfies or propitiates our sin debt. Another way of saying the same thing is, "What can wash away our sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus." More than likely it was this verse or one like it, dealing with the subject of blood, which caused Pastor Robert Lowry to write a hymn.

Born in Philadelphia, on March 12, 1826, young Robert accepted Christ as his personal Savior at the age of 17 and later graduated from Bucknell University with high scholastic honors. In the 73 years of his life here on earth, he pastored churches in Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York City and Brooklyn. Along with his preaching, Dr. Lowry also had the gift of music in the writing of hymns. When asked about his method for writing songs, he would answer by saying:

I have no set method. Sometimes, the music comes and the words follow. I watch my moods, and when anything strikes me, whether words or music, no matter where I am, at home or on the street, I jot it down. My brain is sort of a spinning machine, for there is music running through it all the time. The tunes of nearly all the hymns I have written have been completed on paper, before I tried them on the organ. Frequently, the words of the hymn and the music have been written at the same time.

He [Lowry] supplied the music for such familiar hymns as We’re Marching to Zion, Savior, Thy Dying Love, Where Is my Wandering Boy Tonight, I Need Thee Every Hour and Fanny Crosby’s song, All the Way my Savior Leads Me. The words and music would come together in 1864 to produce Shall We Gather at the River. Then, in the Easter season of 1874, Christ Arose would flow from his pen and his heart. Finally, in 1876, Pastor Lowry would give us the answer to our sin debt in his song, Nothing but the Blood.

Down through the ages, man has tried to work off his sin debt in good works and religion, only to fail. The Bible says, "Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness." (Hebrews 9:22) Robert Lowry understood this very well:

Oh! Precious is the flow, That makes me white as snow,

No other fount I know Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing But the Blood by Matt Redman

Your blood speaks a better word, Than all the empty claims I’ve heard upon this earth
Speaks righteousness for me, And stands in my defense, Jesus it’s Your blood.

[Chorus]
What can wash away our sins? What can make us whole again?
Nothing but the blood, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can wash us pure as snow? Welcomed as the friends of God
Nothing but Your blood, Nothing but Your blood King Jesus.

Your cross testifies in grace, Tells of the Father’s heart to make a way for us
Now boldly we approach, Not by earthly confidence
It’s only Your blood.

[Chorus]

[Coda]

We thank You for the blood; We thank You for the blood,

We praise You for the blood; We praise You for the blood,

Nothing but Your blood, Nothing but Your blood, King Jesus.