He Hideth My Soul.....the hymns story

He Hideth My Soul

Fanny Crosby, 1820-1915

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.

A year out of college, Martha had married the man of her dreams. Four years later her marriage had turned into a nightmare of fear, anger, distrust, abuse. Like a disciphning father, her husband saw it as his role to set her straight, if necessary by force and fist. As for her two toddlers—she lived in fear of how he mistreated them in her absence.

Each week she allowed herself only one night away from home—to take a graduate course at a nearby university She was away exactly four hours. A one-hour drive into the city, a two-hour class, then the drive home. No after-class conversation or dawdling. No library stop. Just in and out—to get back home to hover over her children. To stand in the gap if anything blew up.

"That drive was the only solitude I had all week," she says, "the only time I was alone—and quiet." Her one chance to hide. "My mind often turned to prayer—and song, usually one particular hymn that was, well, not my style." Martha explains: The tune brought back memories of Sunday-night-church, waltz-time, Hammond-organ music.

And yet years later, the song she naturally disliked seemed Spirit-planted in her mind. She couldn't discount it, and the words upheld and enfolded her as she walked in a parched desert place.

This song, written by Fanny Crosby, is based on images found in Psalm 31:

Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of

 refuge, a strong fortress to save me. , . . In the shelter of your

 presence you hide them (vv. 2, 20).

Crosby herself knew hardship. Blind from infancy, she made a name for herself as a gospel songwriter. And this in the nineteenth century, when physical handicaps were culturally more formidable than now.

A shadow lingers over Fanny's own domestic life. Her only child died as an infant,.a loss she would never discuss. And though never divorced, in later life she and her husband— whom she always spoke of with affection—lived separately for years. Why? No one knows.

But both Fanny and Martha clung to the assurance that their Lord held them secure and shaded in a rock fortress. But lest that sound impersonal-—or the rocks be radiating heat like an old bread oven—the image also included a fleshy component: The Lord "covers me there with his hand."

That rock-sure but personal relationship gave Martha the strength to reach out of her isolation and seek help for herself and her children.

That relationship can uphold you in your crisis. Remember, what the psalmist refers to as a "strong fortress," a few verses later he calls'"the shelter of [God's] presence."

A spiritual phrases it yet another way, describing Jesus as a "Rock in a weary land."

A shelter whatever your need.

Lord, allow me to experience you as a Rock of refuge. But don't let me forget that that protecting shelter is your very presence, the covering of your hand.

...........

From the book: "Spiritual Moments with the Great Hymns" by Evelyn Bence.