As I have written before, the great hymns of our faith have a way of bringing God’s Word and promises to bear on my heart and mind in the timeliest ways. Because these songs are able to root so deeply into our psyche, our middle schoolers are using Sunday school to better understand their meaning, including where their lyrics are backed by scripture. From time to time, I’d like to share with you a review of our study in hopes that you will be blessed by remembering how these hymns point us to Jesus. 

One of the all-time greats, in my opinion, is Horatio Spafford’s It Is Well with My Soul. While I’ve sung it in church and often at funerals all my life, when the congregation sang it at my mother’s funeral, it was impressed on my soul in a fresh way. So, I’d like to remind you what inspired Spafford to write this hymn of assurance and point out some aspects of the hymn that remind us of God’s steady hand of grace.

Spafford’s acquaintance with the heaviness of grief at least began through his financial loses in 1871 Chicago fire. As he gained his footing financially shortly thereafter, he and his wife mourned the loss of their 4-year-old (and only) son to scarlet fever. In Job-like devastation, he then lost his remaining children, four daughters, to a shipwreck in the Atlantic as they and his wife were steaming to England for vacation where he planned to meet them a week or two later. As he rushed to meet his wife on the next ship, he wrote “It is well, the will of God be done.” as his vessel passed near the wreckage site. Later, this sentiment would become one of the great hymns of our faith. 

Here is the text of the hymn, and next week we’ll look at each verse to understand its meaning and its rootedness in Scripture. 

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."

Though 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.

My sin oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

my sin, not in part, but the whole,

is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more;

praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

O 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:

It is well with my soul;

it is well, it is well with my soul.

Grace and Peace,

Jay