“When all around my soul gives way….”

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3. His oath, his covenant, his blood
supports me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay.

Refrain:
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.

“My Hope is Built” text by Edward Mote

Grief ambushed me today.

I was singing this third verse of “My Hope is Built” for work and started to feel deep emotions welling up as I meditated on the lyrics of this classic hymn. (Don’t worry, the service went without a hitch.) For a moment, the hymn transported me to the time in my life “When all around my soul [gave] way.”

I discovered my first marriage was “sinking sand” but I also discovered “[Christ] then [was] my hope and stay.”

While the contrast of Christ’s faithfulness to the covenant and my first wife’s unfaithfulness evoked sadness within me, this hymn also evoked gratitude to my God who truly was My Rock while the sands of my life were all sinking around me. God is faithful even when the closest human to us in unfaithful. I know because I have experienced it.

May this rich hymn minister to your soul as it did to mine today:

 

3 thoughts on ““When all around my soul gives way….””

  1. Thank you – this is a tough day for me and I came on to this site to reorient myself…this is the reminder I needed. God is enough – always was and always will be. Thank you for all that you do. I am so grateful for your blog.

  2. Thank you DM, this is a rich and beautiful reminder, indeed we can wholly lean on Jesus.

    Am wondering… do you have any thoughts, experiences or otherwise on Post Traumatic Stress and adultery? I am exactly seven years post discovery. I feel healed (say about 85- 90%) but sometimes the waves of grief sneak up on me, returning as a deep and tangible pain. Tho momentary, the ache can still be overwhelming.

    I’ve said that inasmuch as marriage gives us a picture of God’s love for His Bride, the Church, adultery gives us a clear and agonizing glimpse of the anguish God must feel when we walk away from His love. I think it is a type of the “fellowship of His sufferings” (Philippians 3:10), a horrific and unique kind of trauma for victims that our God knows all about.

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