“Leaning”; With a song in my heart; thoughts from our music director, Rick Roberts.
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Good Terrific Tuesday!
I thoroughly enjoyed the hymn sing a couple of Sundays ago. It was interesting to learn some of your favorite hymns. Topping it all off was the powerful singing! I was blessed. Today being Tuesday, we’ll take a look at one of those chosen hymns, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”. A music teacher, author and publisher, Anthony Johnson Showalter, born in 1858, was inspired after quoting a Deuteronomy verse to two of his former students who had lost their wives. Repeating the verse, Showalter immediately felt impressed to compose a hymn, along with its refrain, based upon the Scripture. |
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Needing stanzas to go along with the hymn, Showalter called upon the Rev. Elisha Albright Hoffman to see what he could do. Hoffman, born on May 7, 1839, in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, attended Union Seminary in New Berlin, Pennsylvania, and was ordained in 1868.
This hymn first appeared in “The Glad Evangel: For Revival, Camp and Evangelistic Meetings,” published in 1887.
An easy, as well as upbeat and encouraging, hymn, the refrain goes like this: “Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms; leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.”
What was the verse Showalter was quoting to his former students?
God understands that sometimes we are just too weak to carry on, sometimes we become overwhelmed by our life. Yet, God knows, and God helps us. In Proverbs 3:5-6, we find, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
Seek the joy and peace of God, for God blesses us, giving us joy, rest and blessedness as we “lean on his everlasting arms.”
Have a blessed day.
With a song in my heart,
Rick
