And the LORD said, Behold, there
is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass,
while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and
will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. (Ex 33:21-22)
Today’s hymn (He Hideth my Soul) is another by that great
visionary of things heavenly, though she was blind to the things of this world –
Fanny Crosby. Fanny was blind from infancy, but managed to write more than
9,000 (this is correct, 9,000) hymns – enough to fill 18 hymnals. She is,
without doubt, the most prolific hymn writer in history; and her hymns are
among the most beloved in our hymnals. Unfortunately, the 1940 Hymnal was
remiss in failing to include this hymn as one of the great hymns of our church.
Her life spanned almost 95 years from 1820 to 1915. Her hymn-writing career
actually began near middle age and never slowed from that time. It would be
difficult to imagine what the loss of such hymns as “Blessed Assurance,”
"Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour," "Jesus Keep Me Near The
Cross," and "Safe In The Arms Of Jesus," would mean to the
church. The loss of sight tuned
Fanny's soul to the melodies of and a clear vision of heaven.
The Lord is often referred to as our Rock and our Fortress.
The Lord Jesus Christ is our Hiding Place and our Rock. As Mr. Toplady has so
powerfully written, Jesus is our “Rock of Ages.”
HE HIDETH MY SOUL
Fanny Crosby
A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
A wonderful Savior to me;
He hideth my soul in the cleft of
the rock,
Where rivers of pleasure I see.
(Refrain)
He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock,
That shadows a dry, thirsty land;
He hideth my life in the depths of His love,
And covers me there with His hand,
And covers me there with His hand.
A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord,
He taketh my burden away,
He holdeth me up and I shall not
be moved,
He giveth me strength as my day.
With numberless blessings each
moment He crowns,
And filled
with His fullness divine,
I sing in my rapture, oh, glory
to God!
For such a Redeemer as mine.
When clothed with His brightness
transported I rise
To meet Him in clouds of
the sky,
His perfect salvation, His
wonderful love,
I’ll shout with the millions on
high.
“A
wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
A wonderful Savior to me; He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
Where
rivers of pleasure I see.” Our souls can become part of that River of
Life that flows through the meadows and pastures of Eternity. The water that
flows through the bedrock of the River is our Lord Jesus Christ for He is the
Water of Life. He is wonderful beyond measure – Wonderful is His
very name: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful
. . .” (Isaiah 9:6a) That Cleft of the Rock is not
visible to all passers-by – it is a Hidden Place for those who know and love
His Wonderful Name. “Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me
from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.” (Psalms
32:7) The Lord not
only hides us in safety, but He is our “Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and
Friend.” (O worship the King). A true hymn is to teach Biblical truth.
See how compellingly are the truths of the Bible presented in this hymn! “The
LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in
whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved
from mine enemies.” (Psalms 18:2-3)
“A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord, He taketh my
burden away, He holdeth me up and I shall not be moved, He giveth me strength
as my day.” The Lord Jesus Christ is our Burden-Bearer. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you,
and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto
your souls.” (Matt 11:28-29) It is such a sad thing to see
men and women struggling under their own windless sails to cross the sea of
life. They are met by one contrary storm after another and fail to call upon
the One Wind that can bring them to safe harbor – the Master of the Seas. With
our Lord Jesus Christ as the Anchor (Hebrews 6:19) for our
souls, we shall not be moved. We will sink our roots of faith deep into
that Underground River of Sychar, which fed Jacob’s Well, for refreshment, and
we shall not be moved. “. . . like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.” (Psalms
1:3)
“With numberless blessings each moment He crowns, And filled
with His fullness divine, I sing in my rapture, oh, glory to God! For such a
Redeemer as mine.” The world can never comprehend how a
Christian can be joyful and thankful under every stress of life while the world
bears her stones of burden with such consternation. The Rapturous Swells of Joy
that flow from hearts filled to the overflowing with the Love of Christ cannot
be understood by those who have no faith. The Christian heart is filled
with His fullness Divine! They will consider is to be a very ‘peculiar
people.” (1 Peter 2:9 & Titus 2:14). How proudly does a young child
boast of the strength of his big brother in defending him! But what a Brother
we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. So much more than a brother is He. “For
I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon
the earth.” (Job 19:25) Of course, the last and most
important point about our Redeemer is that this Redeemer is OURS. If we do not
own Christ as our redeemer, all else is lost.
“When clothed with His brightness transported I
rise To meet Him in clouds of the sky, His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, I’ll shout with the millions on high.” You will recall that
at the last glimpse of Jesus during His earthly ministry, He was received into
a CLOUD! “And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was
taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while
they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by
them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye
gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”
(Acts 1:9-11)
Those who belong to Him shall likewise be received up into that same Cloud with
our Lord. Remember how Jesus counseled those lepers whom He healed to tell no
man; and how He advised the blind boy whose vision He restored to tell no man;
and how often He told them whom He had healed to tell no man? He knew they
could not; however, there was a lesson for us in those commands: when the Lord
has done a great work and a wonder in our lives, how can we keep silence! How
can you know the perfect answer for the problems that plague those you love,
those who are your friends and neighbors, without crying out that answer that
was satisfied for you in the Lord Jesus Christ? His salvation is Perfect. His
love is Wonderful for He is Love.
“(Refrain) He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock, That shadows a dry, thirsty land; He hideth my
life in the depths of His love, And covers me there with His hand, And covers
me there with His hand.”
Love is perfect in and of itself. It cannot fail – only the lack thereof can
fail. Since our Lord Jesus Christ is the very rock in which we find shelter, it
is He who hides us there in the covert of His Heart. That dry, thirsty land is
that land of sin and bondage from which we, as the Children of Israel, were led
by that Rock. “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be
ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through
the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And
did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual
drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that
Rock was Christ.” (1 Cor 10:1-4) Our very lives are sustained by
His immeasurable Love. He covers every sin of our souls with His Hand – a Hand
that is scarred and bruised by nine inch Roman nails; a Hand that has the names
of every Redeemed of the Lord – not written thereon with brush or pen – but GRAVED
(cut) into the soft sinews thereof. “Can a woman forget her sucking
child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they
may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon
the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.”
(Isaiah 49:15-16)
Do we hunger after the Lord as His love has hungered after
us? Do we seek Him early, and seek after Him in the Sanctuary of our Hearts –
and is that Sanctuary His own? “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek
thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and
thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have
seen thee in the sanctuary.” (Psalms
63:1-2) Friend, did
you seek the Lord early (at the first glimpse of daybreak or before)? Does your
soul truly hunger after the Lord – enough to eat of the Bread of His Word
daily? Do you long, as did the Maiden of Shulem in the Gardens of Solomon, for
His Presence with you always? “My beloved is mine, and I am his: he
feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn,
my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of
Bether.” (Song 2:16-17) Christ, to the Christian, is his All-in-All. Is He YOURS?
