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.
Tho’ Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin– oh, the bliss of this glorious tho’t:
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!
And, Lord, haste the day when the 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.
Horatio Spafford, 1873
Read Psalm 42:1-11
(Perhaps you know the story behind the hymn. Spafford, his wife and his four daughters were to travel to Europe. Business concerns delayed Spafford and he sent his family ahead. In the North Atlantic the ship collided with another and sank in twelve minutes. His wife was rescued. His daughters were not. Spafford wrote the hymn on the voyage to be reunited with his wife, This was in 1873. Two years earlier in 1871, he had lost nearly everything in the Chicago fire. In 1880, he and his wife lost their son. Spafford’s faith was not theoretical. It was a fierce faith with an unwavering eternal perspective. May we all cling to the truth that “it is well with my soul.” If it is not well, Jesus stands ready and willing to save.)
