Mark's Blog

Be Still My Soul is a hymn that has comforted me and calmed my fears on many occasions. This hymn has the benefit of amazing music that permits coupling only with correspondingly beautiful language.  Be Still My Soul  is the perfect marriage.

Jean Sibelius, a famous Finnish composer, wrote a nationalistic symphony called Finlandia in 1899-1900. Within a fairly turbulent and rousing string of movements, he embedded a quiet hymn-like moment, which became so popular itself that Sibelius later pulled that part of the symphony out and re-worked it into a choral piece.

Katarina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel (1697-1768) wrote the German words in 1752, which were translated by Jane Laurie Borthwick into English in 1855.  I have not been able to determine when the melody and these words were first brought together.

Beyond the music, what really first captured me about these lyrics is that they do not promise an easy path or quick relief. What these hymn measures out to you in each verse is comfort and hope, so that you can bear your “cross of grief or pain.”

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Your God is not helpless in the face of what unbelievers would call Fate or Destiny or Chance. In fact, He is entirely sovereign over the future and the past.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy 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.

The death of loved ones is perhaps our most painful moment in this life. That kind of separation even made Jesus cry—but not with a sorry that will not be healed by the Resurrection.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.

The fear of our own death and all the money we spend and hours we take trying to prolong our days and avoid the unavoidable.  We will need to find in God that moment of stillness when we “grief and fear are gone.”  Grief and fear are exchanged for “love’s purest joy restored.”

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening 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 blessèd we shall meet at last.

The story is told that this Eric Liddell, the runner about whom Chariots of Fire was made, taught this hymn to fellow prisoners in China while imprisoned during World War II, an imprisonment he escaped only by death.

A similarly moving story is told that a version of this hymn called “We Rest On Him” was the last hymn sung by Jim Elliot and four fellow missionaries before they were killed by a violent tribe of natives in Ecuador in 1956.

I certainly hope you are not facing imprisonment or native spears, but I suspect you have your own fearful moments.  In those moments, this hymn will be a blessing to you.

Be still and know that I am God.  Psalm 46:10