The first stanza of “The Solid Rock” is my favorite hymn. I sing this beloved anthem when I walk in my neighborhood, clean bathrooms, drift off to sleep, and prepare for stressful situations. The tune and lyrics lighten the load and remind me I am never alone.
Edward Mote penned the verses of this hymn in 1834. Born in London in 1797, Pastor Mote was baptized at eighteen, trained as a cabinetmaker, and called by God at age fifty to serve as a pastor. When his congregation gifted him with a church building, he declared, “I do not want the chapel, I only want the pulpit; and when I cease to preach Christ, then turn me out of that.” His hope was in Jesus, the Solid Rock, not a solid building.
The word hope appears eighteen times in the book of Job and thirty-four times in the Psalms in the NIV Bible. Job and the psalmists clung to hope amid despair.
Hope is a gift from God, the power of the Holy Spirit nudging us forward, reminding us there is something better ahead. Hope is an extension, a by-product of faith. Faith generates hope. The more faith exercised, the more hope created.
I will rest today in the arms of my Savior, the Solid Rock, my only hope in this life and the next. I hope you will too.
Macy Johnson is a native Floridian living the lake-life in Georgia. She is an instrument of God’s blessings as a writer, church pianist, community accompanist, wife, mother, nana, Bridge player, adoptee, retired auditor, and member of Word Weavers International. Her “God Sightings” are published weekly in the Greensboro Herald-Journal. Find her at www.macymjohnson.com, macymjohnson@gmail.com, and on Facebook as Macy Martin Johnson.