It Is Well With My Soul
The Leather Bound Song Book
Back when I was in my first two years of college, I took a road trip from Montgomery, AL to Tulsa, OK with some friends from church to attend the Tulsa Soul Winning Workshop.
Some of you may know what that was, many of you will have no idea and that’s totally ok!
The Tulsa Soul Winning Workshop was a fairly large conference held every year in Tulsa where church leaders would come together to be encouraged, equipped, and inspired to go home and bless their churches and reach their neighbors for Christ.
I have no idea how me and my friends even heard about this. We were on the other side of the Mississippi river. But somehow we found out about it and decided to come!
What you may not know about me is that in my early college days I was a part of a small singing group. We loved to go to retreats and other church events to sing and even lead worship.
When I was a kid, some of my heroes of faith, people I looked up to in church, were the worship leaders. And back in those days, before we had screens and motion backgrounds, we had songbooks.
So when I got to the Tulsa Soul Winning Workshop I discovered there was a whole room of vendors who were selling things for church leaders. Things like books, music, and other resources. And, I know you can’t even begin to imagine this, but if you could have known me then you might could imagine my excitement when I came to a table where I discovered a leather bound copy of the Songs of Faith and Praise!
This was the new songbook that had just been released. Churches were ordering these song books by the cases. And most song leaders would have to use one of the standard hard back song books when they stood up to lead worship. But not me. I was about to use whatever money I had in my pocket to buy my own leather bound copy of the Songs of Faith and Praise.
For a long time, I thought that when I grew up I would be a worship leader. It was only a few years ago that I discovered God’s calling on my life to preach. But every time I had the chance to lead worship in church I always stood on stage proudly with my leather bound copy of the Songs of Faith and Praise.
It Is Well with My Soul
This song book is filled with hundreds of songs, many of which have become near and dear to hearts of so many Christians over the years. Maybe one of the most famous and most beloved songs of all time is #490.
How many of you remember #490? Again, some of you have no idea what I’m talking about. Back in the day before screens, a song leader would stand on stage and say something like, “Please turn in your hymnals to song #490.” And everyone would turn to that song, and then we would sing.
Song #490 is the song, “It Is Well With My Soul.”
It was written in 1873 by Horatio Stafford. And the story behind the song has been well documented.
He and his wife, Anna, had 4 daughters. They lived in Chicago and had just survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Although their home was unharmed, the smoke inhalation had done a number on Anna and her doctor recommended they take a trip to Europe, to a different climate, where she could rest and heal.
They had planned to travel together, but at the last minute their plans were changed. Horatio needed to stay home a few more days to wrap up a business deal, a real estate transaction, and then he would follow his wife and children. In November of 1873, Anna and their four daughters set sail on the luxury steamer SS Ville du Havre.
On November 22, in the early hours of the morning, the SS Ville du Havre sank in 12 minutes after colliding with a British ship called Lochearn. It all happened so fast that they were unable to deploy the life boats. 226 people died that day. Only 47 survived.
Anna was one of those survivors. But all four of their daughters were lost.
Annie was 10. Maggie was 8. Bessie was only 5. And Tanetta was 2.
When Annie reached Wales with the other survivors, she sent a telegram to her husband, Horatio. “Saved alone. What shall I do?”
As you might imagine, Horatio was on the first boat to find his wife. When the ship he was traveling on was somewhere over the mid-Atlantic, the captain of the ship summoned him to his office.
The captain said, “A careful reckoning has been made and I believe we are now passing the place where the Ville du Havre was wrecked.”
Horatio went onto the deck of the ship, took out a piece of paper, stationary from a local hotel he often went to near his office for meetings, and he wrote these words as the ship passed over the place where his daughters were buried in a watery grave.
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea-billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to know;
It is well, it is well with my soul …
Is it well with your soul?
For the last 150 years, this song has resonated with so many people, so many who are struggling with unbearable grief, so many who are having a hard time holding on to faith, so many whose hearts are filled with doubts and questions, the kind of doubts and questions that don’t have answers.
I think it’s interesting that in this song book, song #490 is, “It Is Well with My Soul.” But the song before it, song #489, is entitled, “Is It Well With Your Soul?” This song isn’t nearly as famous as song #490, but this is the question everyone is asking.
Is it well with your soul, really?
We live in a world where the answer to that question for nearly everyone is a resounding, “No.”
“No, it is not well with my soul.”
And the problem we’ve had for song long, at least in the church, is that we want the world around us to know that God can and will forgive their sin. Except, we’re trying to answer a question no one is asking. The world around us isn’t worried about if God can forgive sin right now.
More than maybe ever before, people are wondering if there even is a God and if there is, does He care about what’s going on in the world right now, in my life right now?
And we’ve got more doubt than we have faith. And the problem with doubt is that it leaves us without hope. If you want to know what a world looks like without hope, a world that is hopeless, look around.
Another Song about Faith and Doubt
But this struggle isn’t new. In fact, this struggle with doubt, this struggle for faith, has always been a struggle.
Psalm 22 was written by David. David was a shepherd boy who later became the King of Israel. He was known as a man after God’s own heart but if you know David’s story, you know he was far from perfect. But through David’s family tree one day the Messiah, Jesus, would be born.
David didn’t write all the psalms, but he wrote a lot of them. And I want you to hear what he writes at the beginning of Psalm 22.
My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Why are you so far away when I groan for help?
Psalm 22.1
Does that sound like a song of praise? Like the prayer of a faith filled person?
Those words might sound incredibly familiar. In fact, some of you might be confused right now because you know these words but you didn’t think they were found in the psalms. When you hear the words,
“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why have you forsaken me?“
You don’t think about David and the psalms. You think about Jesus and the cross. Because these are the exact words Jesus said while he was hanging on the cross some 2000 years ago.
And you’ve always wondered, Why did Jesus say that?
Why did Jesus say that?
Why did Jesus think God was abandoning him? Forsaking Him?
And someone somewhere along the way probably told you that the answer to that question was because in that moment, Jesus was bearing the sin and shame of the world, and God can’t be where sin is, so God turned His back on His Son, Jesus, where he died alone for you and me.
And that sounds nice. It’s not true, but it sounds nice.
We know that God can be in the presence of sin and sinners because Jesus came from Heaven to Earth and Jesus was the Son of Man, fully human, but He was also the Son of God, fully Divine. Jesus is God. He is God the Son.
When Jesus walked the planet he was never not in the presence of sinners. In fact, one of the strongest accusations against Jesus by the religious leaders was that he was always in the presence of the worst of sinners.
So the reason Jesus said, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” wasn’t because God couldn’t be in the presence of sin. God absolutely can be. In fact, it’s in the presence of God that your sins are forgiven, that you are healed and made whole.
It may be helpful to remember that the psalms were not only the prayer book of Israel, the psalms were the song book of Israel. And every Jewish boy and girl grew up memorizing the prayers, the songs, and they new everyone by heart.
You know what it’s like when someone sings the first line of a song or chorus that everyone knows? You ever experience that? Let’s try it…
I’ll sing the first part of a song, you sing the next part.
Sweet Caroline, “_____, _____, _____.”
Good times never seemed so good
Here’s what I want you to see, the same thing happened on the cross some 2000 years ago. When Jesus said, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” everyone in the crowd that day other than the Romans knew the rest of the song. Jesus sang the first line to remind them of what comes next. And what comes next?
The Rest of the Song
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
Our ancestors trusted in you,
and you rescued them.
They cried out to you and were saved.
They trusted in you and were never disgraced.
– Psalm 22.3-5
The very next lyrics are a reminder of the faithfulness of God. In fact, you see this back and forth throughout all of psalm 22.
It’s almost like the Psalmist is singing #489: Is it well with my soul?
And if that’s true, then this is where it gets really interesting. Because you know what comes after Psalm 22? Psalm 23.
If Psalm 22 is asking the question, “Is it well with my soul?”, then Psalm 23 answers with,
The Lord is my shepherd;
I have all that I need.
He lets me rest in green meadows;
he leads me beside peaceful streams.
He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.
Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
protect and comfort me.
You prepare a feast for me
in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.
Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord
forever.
In other words, Yes. Yes, it is well with my soul.
Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say it is well, it is well with my soul.
What do you do with the pain and grief?
Some of you know first hand what this feels like.
Some of you have experience, recent experience, with pain, suffering, grief, and loss. Some of you are struggling with doubt today. Some of you aren’t really sure if you believe in God, if you still believe in God, and if God is real if He cares.
What do you do when you struggle with faith? Whenever you have doubt?
More to the Story
There’s more to Horatio & Anna Spafford’s story that you may not know. Horatio and Anna returned to Chicago after the tragedy on the Atlantic. They had 3 more children. Two girls and a boy. One of them, a son named Horatio after his father, died as an infant from scarlet fever.
More pain. More brokenness. More unanswerable questions.
So in 1881, they decided to leave Chicago and go on an extended pilgrimage to the Holy Land to find rest and solace. They bought a house on the old city walls of Jerusalem and became known as the Americans who would welcome anyone in, no matter their race, religion, or anything else.
Their Christian faith led them to live a life of welcoming all kinds of people into their home. Eventually, they had to move outside the city walls of Jerusalem to a place where they could serve more people. This continued on during World War 1. At one point they were giving to soup to more than 400 people a day.
This place outside the old city of Jerusalem is now one of the finest hotels in Jerusalem called the American Colony Hotel which has been a place where people from all over the world have stayed. It’s also become a place where many people from divergent viewpoints have come to meet and find common ground.
And the place they had before along the old city walls of Jerusalem they kept as an orphanage that would go on to serve more than 30,000 children. In fact, if you go to Jerusalem today The Spafford Children’s Center still sits as an orphanage along the city wall by the Damascus gate.
All of this was born out of loss, pain, grief, and sorrow. All of this came from a decision to believe in the middle of doubt.
In a time of unbearable loss and unspeakable pain, Horatio and Anna Spafford turned to God, to loving their neighbors, and serving orphaned children.
In the middle of their loss they turned to Love.
Faith isn’t the Absence of Doubt
In fact, when you sing those lyrics Horatio Spafford wrote while on the Atlantic over the place where four of his children died, when you sing: It is Well with My Soul, this is what you’re saying. You’re saying I choose to believe in a God who is greater than my greatest doubts. I choose to believe in a God who is greater than my hardest questions.
And this is what Faith is… Faith isn’t the absence of doubt.
Faith is the presence of Hope and the choice to believe in the middle of uncertainty and fear.
Faith says, in the valley of the shadow of death You are with me!
And because you are with me, whatever my lot, it is well with my soul.
And because I choose faith, because I’m leaning into hope, I will look for ways to love and serve those around me who are also in need.
If you’re struggling with faith today, can I invite you to choose faith, to lean into hope, and to find a way to serve someone around you?
This is the way forward. And the good news is that when we choose to believe in the middle of our doubts we remember that because of our faith we never walk alone because our Hope has a Name and His name is Jesus. God With Us.
Lean into Hope
What if we were honest? Sometimes it’s not easy to believe. Sometimes we have doubts.
But when we decide to believe, to have faith in the middle our doubts, to put our hope in Jesus, to lean into love and serving those around us in love… you know what happens?
Our lives become a powerful testimony to God. We become a witness to the grace of God. People look at us an example of what happens when God is with us through the hardest parts of this life.
We become like shining stars in this dark world reflecting the goodness of God! (Phil 2.15). We become living examples of the grace of God. (Eph 2.7).
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