The words of "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" are by Charles Wesley, who is a contender for the greatest hymn writer ever. Charles Wesley produced somewhere between 6 and 7,000 hymns in his lifetime, including several others that you know, like “Rejoice, the Lord Is King,” “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today,” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” Charles and his brother John were students at Oxford when they organized what they called a Holy Club, where they studied the scriptures and talked about the gospel, and in fact they were so methodical about how they approached this that they were derisively known as Methodists. After Oxford the two brothers went on a two year mission to Georgia, which was an American colony at the time (the Revolution hadn’t happened yet), and it is pretty safe to say that that mission was a complete failure. They had trouble with illness, shipwrecks, politics, language barriers, lack of interest on the part of the prospective converts, church members who got offended, unfounded accusations of wrongdoing, and even a crisis in their own testimonies. In fact, at one point John Wesley wrote in his diary, “I came to convert the Indians, but oh, who shall convert me?”
We often talk about testimonies as though having one means you don’t have any more questions or doubts or confusion or wondering about what’s right and what’s wrong. And I have not personally found that to be the case. The crucible of faith is to be able to see these issues and these moments as a temporary setback, not a permanent failure.
And in fact for the Wesley brothers, it was not permanent. They found renewed faith and hope and belief that they could help those around them. They returned to England and preached there, where they also experienced still more opposition. It is said that this particular hymn, “Jesus, Lover of my Soul,” was written just after the two brothers had been driven by a violent mob away from a place where they had been preaching. And if we look at the text, you can see that this song is a plea for help in times of trouble. It’s addressed to Christ, that is who we are speaking to when we sing this song. In the third line, we cry, “Hide me, O my Savior hide, till the storm of life is past.”
One guarantee in life is that there will be storms. There will be times when we can say, “Other refuge have I none,” because the Savior is the only place to turn. The message of this song is to find comfort in the Savior even when your lot is impossible and you can’t think of anything to be joyful about.
I have added a new duet version of this beautiful hymn here.
We often talk about testimonies as though having one means you don’t have any more questions or doubts or confusion or wondering about what’s right and what’s wrong. And I have not personally found that to be the case. The crucible of faith is to be able to see these issues and these moments as a temporary setback, not a permanent failure.
And in fact for the Wesley brothers, it was not permanent. They found renewed faith and hope and belief that they could help those around them. They returned to England and preached there, where they also experienced still more opposition. It is said that this particular hymn, “Jesus, Lover of my Soul,” was written just after the two brothers had been driven by a violent mob away from a place where they had been preaching. And if we look at the text, you can see that this song is a plea for help in times of trouble. It’s addressed to Christ, that is who we are speaking to when we sing this song. In the third line, we cry, “Hide me, O my Savior hide, till the storm of life is past.”
One guarantee in life is that there will be storms. There will be times when we can say, “Other refuge have I none,” because the Savior is the only place to turn. The message of this song is to find comfort in the Savior even when your lot is impossible and you can’t think of anything to be joyful about.
I have added a new duet version of this beautiful hymn here.