#217: Hymn Review - My Hope is built on Nothing Less
One of the most important things to have as a believer while you live your life on earth is hope. Paul in his letter to the Romans makes it clear that hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us (Rom 5:5). Still within his letter to the Romans, he said:
Rom 8:22-25 (NIV)
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
Paul presents some of the things that we hope for as believers. He makes it clear that we groan inwardly as we eagerly await something. Hope is a trait that is seen throughout the christian journey in the earth. The reason why we live the way we live, the reasons why we hold on to some profession is because there is a hope, there is an end to all that we see. There is a hope to which God has called us. Heb 6:19-20 makes it clear that we have this hope as an anchor for our souls and that Jesus is our forerunner and has entered into this hope on our behalf.
The hymn was written by Edward Mote, a pastor at Rehoboth Baptist Church in Horsham, West Sussex. Mote wrote around 100 hymns in all. He wrote this hymn in 1834 and it is his best known hymn.
Edward Mote (1797-1874) falls into the category of hymn writers who grew up without religious training and whose parents were pub owners. He was apprenticed at a young age by his parents to a cabinetmaker, but found faith when he heard the preaching of John Hyatt at the Tottenham Court Road Chapel in London at the age of 15. He established a successful cabinet-making enterprise and became a Baptist minister in 1852, at 55 years of age.
The Universal Methodist Hymnal editor Carlton Young notes that the original version of the hymn, which was titled “Jesus, my All in All” is of uneven quality. The version in our hymnals today is the result of careful editing of the original six stanzas into four, choosing the most coherent lines from the original.
The “foot-stomping” tune for Mote’s text was composed by American gospel song composer William Bradbury, a fellow Baptist in 1863 and appeared during the American Civil War in Bradbury’s Devotional Hymn and Tune Book (1864).
Let’s take a brief consideration of the stanzas and chorus.
Stanza 1
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness
I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus' name
The writer makes it clear that his hope is built and can only be built on nothing less than the blood of Jesus and his righteousness. Our hope didn’t come out of our own making and it would neither be actualized by our own making. It is of God and of God alone. For it was God who died and rose even while we were still blind in sin. Believers must keep this in mind. Never at any time should we begin to lean on something else, never at any time should we trust in any frame, even if it is our righteousness or the track record of our faithfulness to God. We must commit to leaning on Jesus alone.
Stanza 2
When darkness veils his lovely face
I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil
Darkness could veil the Lord’s face. The believer needs to keep one thing in mind in this kind of situation: God cannot change. His grace remains and it is unchanging. Remember that by two immutable things he made a promise and the promise stands today (Heb 6:18). Remember that we have a forerunner who has gone before us and who stands as a high priest for us before his God (Heb 4:14). This stanza was a declaration by the writer of his trust and hope. He made it clear that his anchor holds within the veil. This should also be our declaration even in tough and difficult times.
Stanza 3
His oath, his covenant, his blood
Supports me in the 'whelming flood
When all around my soul gives way
He then is all my hope and stay
The writer knew that there could be overwhelming floods. He knew that there were times where everything around the soul of a man could give way. Yet he knew something which every believer should know. He knew the oath, the covenant and the blood. The oath and covenant were two immutable things by which God bound himself to fulfill the promise of eternal life to us. His blood is the sacrifice that makes it accessible. What this means is that God has made every provision for us to be partakers of His promise. We only need to do something, we need to hold on to our profession. We need to keep it in mind that the journey would not be easy all through. Yet, we must know that in the midst of the difficulty He sustains us.
Stanza 4
When He shall come with trumpet sound
Oh may I then in Him be found
Dressed in his righteousness alone
Faultless to stand before the throne
This seems to be a prayer and an expectation of the writer. That indeed is our glorious end. It should be the hope of every believer, to be found in him when He shall come for us. The writer doesn’t want to be dressed in his own righteousness, he doesn’t want to be dressed in anyone’s righteousness. He wants to be dressed in the righteousness of God and God alone. That is only when he could be faultless to stand before the throne. Our own righteousness, no matter how good it is would always be faulty before the throne.
Chorus
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
Every ground outside Christ is a sinking sand. The ground of idol worship is a sinking sand. The ground of self righteousness is a sinking sand. This chorus brings to mind the illustration Jesus gave about a man who built his house upon a sand and another who built his house upon the rock. We all know what happened. The only rock upon which we can build the house of our lives is Christ, for God has declared:
See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed. Isa 28:16 (NIV)
The believer must take note of this. Building on anything else will lead to a collapse even if it takes time.
Written by Chibuikem Okeke
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