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Hymns of Inspiration

Hymns of Inspiration 7 – Bramwell

Many of you will know that the tune for this hymn comes from the tone poem written by the Finnish composer Sibelius. Written in 1899 and revised in 1900, Sibelius’ work Finlandia became a popular piece of music both in Finland and in the rest of the world. Finlandia became a symbol of Finnish nationalism and it is a stirring piece of music. The quiet, reflective section towards the end of the piece contains the tune we use in our hymn books … called Finlandia .

The words of this hymn however date back to the 1750’s and were originally written in German by Katharina von Schlegal. A member of the Free Church of Scotland called Jane Borthwick took five of the original six stanzas of Schlegal’s work and translated them for use as a hymn. We only have three verses in our hymn book. 

1 Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side;
bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
leave to your God to order and provide;
in ev’ry change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: your best, your heav’nly Friend
through thorny ways, leads to a joyful end.

2 Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
to guide the future as He has the past.
Your hope, your confidence let nothing shake;
all now mysterious shall be clear at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice, who ruled them while He dwelt below.

3 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 forgotten, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past,
all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

I would imagine that I am not the only one who finds it hard to be still. But we are told many times in The Bible that this is what we need to be if we are to find God. ‘Be still and know that I am God ‘ (Psalm 46:10) or ‘The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still’ (Exodus 14:14). Having to spend more time being still during this crisis has certainly made me more aware of the fact that I have a tendency to fill my time with things that really do not matter, with noise, with distractions. 

Saint Augustine said, ‘You have made us for yourself, O Lord,and our heart is restless until it rests in you’. Perhaps our restlessness is really a manifestation of our seeking for a purpose or a meaning in life. Paradoxically we can be still and lose our restlessness as we find ourselves in God.   

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