How Firm a Foundation

The lovely hymn "How Firm a Foundation," whose author was probably Robert Keene, has been popular since it appeared in Robert Rippon's 1787 A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors. Keene was the song leader in Rippon's church. This hymn was sung at the funerals of American presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson and at the deathbed of Andrew Jackson. On Christmas Eve, 1898, during the Spanish-American War, it was sung by an entire corps of the United States Army encamped near Havana, Cuba. While leading this hymn in chapel, Charles Hodge, president of Princeton Seminary from 1865-78, was said to have become so overcome with emotion that he could not sing the words. The third stanza is based on Isaiah 41:10. Following are all of the stanzas:

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How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty's vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake.
 


(Friday Church News Notes, October 17, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)