Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Quote, Unquote!
In this month’s installment of my hymn series, I’ll be covering LSB 752: “Be Still, My Soul.” My grandmother has been requesting it for a while, so I thought I’d do it in honour of her.
Let’s go!
The Hymn
Stanza I
Be still, my soul; the Lord is on your side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain,
Leave to your God to order and provide;
In ev’ry change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; your best, your heavn’ly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.
Stanza II
Be still, my soul; your God will undertake
To guide the future as He has the past.
Your hope, your confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.
Stanza III
Be still, my soul; though dearest friends depart
And all is darkened in this vale of tears;
Then you will better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe your sorrows and your fears.
Be still, my soul; your Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.
Stanza IV
Be still, my soul; the hour is hast’ning on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul; when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.
The Scripture
(All Scripture is taken from the New International Version. Unfortunately, the WordPress editor doesn’t like indents, so I did the best I could with the Psalms, but check your own Bible for a correctly indented version.)
Psalm 42:4-11
4These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
under the protection of the Mighty One
with shouts of joy and praise
among the festive throng.
5Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
6My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—
from Mount Mizar.
7Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.
8By day the Lord
directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.
9I say to God my Rock,
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?”
10My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
11Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
Psalm 46:10
“Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
John 11:1-44
Because of the length of this passage, I chose not to include the direct verses, but it is the passage telling of Lazarus’s death and resurrection. I encourage you to visit the passage and reread it for yourself in your own Bible.
Revelation 7:13-17
13Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”
14I answered, “Sir, you know.”
And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15Therefore,
“they are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
will shelter them with his presence.
16‘Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,’
nor any scorching heat.
17For the Lamb at the center of the throne
will be their shepherd;
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’‘
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”
The History
The text of this hymn was written by a Protestant woman named Kathrina von Schlegel. Although her birthday, October 22, 1697, is known, little else about her life is. We do know that this hymn was translated from its native language (most likely German) by a woman by the name of Jane Borthwick in about 1855. Since the hymn was written in the late 17th century, little other records concerning it survive.
This hymn has been classified as a “Hope and Comfort” hymn in the Lutheran Service Book, which, when looking at the stanzas and the scripture that it was taken from, is sort of a given. I found it apt that the story of Lazarus was used as one of the references, seeing as Jesus Himself was so distraught over His friend’s death, but raised him in the end, pointing ahead to the ultimate hope and comfort: Jesus’s own death and resurrection that brings life to all of us.
I think my favourite stanza in this hymn is the second one. “Be still, my soul, the Lord will undertake/To guide the future as he has the past.” When I first look at that, I think, “The past has been really rocky, hasn’t it? Is that really a good thing?”
Yes, yes it is. Because even in the rocky parts, the Lord has come through in the most brilliant of ways. And He will continue to come through like that in the future, always.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next Wednesday!
Until next time,
Quote, Unquote 