Thursday Hymn Reflection: “Abide with Me”

[Each Thursday, we reflect on a hymn suggested by our readers. To add your favorites to our list, leave a comment with up to three songs.]

Written by Henry Lyte in 1847, Abide with Me continues to be sung often, and has been used in many formal services and even films (including Shane) and TV series (including Touched by an Angel). For a song of this age, it is amazing to me how many of all ages, including young people, enjoy singing it.

Originally containing eight stanzas (which most modern song books shorten to four or five), the song is a prayer for God’s protection through the difficult times in life, including even the hour of our death. Often this song is sung at the end of a day of worship (e.g., concluding a Sunday night service). While that can be an application of the lyrics, a closer reading of the entire poem shows that it is speaking more of the “day” of our life, and that we wish for God to be with us in those darkest hours.

My favorite lyric from the song is in a verse that is often not sung. The end of what is commonly the second verse contrasts what our world contains with the greatness of God. Lyte wrote, “Change and decay in all around I see;/ O Thou who changest not, abide with Me.”

Christians love thinking about God as the One who is with us at our hour of need, but Abide with Me takes that thought a step further. We need to spend time in prayer and praise before those difficulties come. Doing so is right, but it also settles the heart of the Christian before calamity comes. For the Christian, even our hour of death is a time when we know that God is near. Whether it is a long and expected departure, or a tragic accident, the Christian is reassured, knowing that God is present.

Here are the eight original verses to this grand prayer hymn:

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word;
But as Thou dwell’st with Thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free.
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.

Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,
But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings,
Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea—
Come, Friend of sinners, and thus bide with me.

Thou on my head in early youth didst smile;
And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,
Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee,
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

—————————————

Enjoy this arrangement of the hymn as you share your thoughts.