Roger's Reflections: How Firm a Foundation

Saturday 10 August 2013

How Firm a Foundation

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. – 1 Corinthians 3.11

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!

What more can He say than to you He hath said,

You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

In every condition, in sickness, in health;

In poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth;

At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,

As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,

For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;

I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand

Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,

The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;

For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,

And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,

My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;

The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design

Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

Even down to old age all My people shall prove

My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;

And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,

Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,

I will not, I will not desert to its foes;

That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,

I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

I was only to grab a few highlights from this wonderful old hymn, but I could not decide what to leave out. This song first appeared in a collection of hymns published in 1787. It is not even clear who wrote it.

Anyway, I thought of this hymn as soon as I saw the passage. There is indeed no other foundation to build on our lives on than Jesus Christ.

There are many, many foundation on which we are tempted to build our lives. We can found on lives on our own resources. We can found our lives on our abilities or skills or prestige. We can found our lives on our parents or family. We can found our lives on our church or our religion or our denomination.

But none of these things can carry us through to the end. All of them are liable to fail and often do fail. Christ, our sure foundation, will never crumble. He will never collapse. He will never fail.

Even though I am not yet ‘old’ I am at the age when old is in sight. I often battle with fears and anxiety about that. I know that God has taken care of me every step of the way so far, but the future years of aging are such an uncertainty. I am grateful for the reminder from ‘How Firm a Foundation’ about some things I already know.