Sunday, June 23, 2019

Devotion

1When 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.

2Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control,
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and has shed his own blood for my soul. Refrain

3He lives--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

4Lord, hasten the day when our faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
the trumpet shall sound and the Lord shall descend;
even so it is well with my soul. Refrain

Text: Horatio G. Spafford, 1828-1888

I can see the ship, sails unfurled to harness the wind. I imagine the writer of this hymn text, Horatio Spafford, gazing at the stars and the ever-churning water, as he felt that power driving them east. Did it bring to his mind the power of the Holy Spirit that guides and sustains us?

Spafford, who had lived through the great Chicago fire only two years earlier, was now on his way to meet his wife, Anna, to bring her back home. She had survived a recent shipwreck in which their four daughters, who were with her, were not rescued. "It is well with my soul": these words, shaped in the midst of that journey, witness to the possibility that each of us can recover our wholeness in spite of great tragedy. "When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, ... it is well, it is well with my soul."