It is Well
sing to the Lord, part 2
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
o Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
“It is Well,” was written by Horatio Spafford in 1873. Though written so long ago, the feeling and truths of this hymn are still felt today. Spafford didn’t write this hymn while sitting in a study thinking about suffering and trials. He wrote it on a ship at sea.
Before 1871 Spafford’s life seemed to be going quite well. He was a successful businessman with a wife and five children – four daughters and one son. But things began to take a turn for the worse that year. His four-year-old son contracted pneumonia and died. That was also the year of the Great Chicago Fire. Spafford lost a large part of his business in that fire.
When 1873 rolled around, he and his family already exhausted from the trials of the previous months, decided to travel to England to rest and enjoy a vacation. Spafford had business to attend to and wasn’t able to leave with his wife and daughters. He sent them on ahead with the plan that he would join them in Europe a few weeks later.
Disaster struck the ship on which his wife and daughters were traveling. It collided with a barge at sea. All four of their daughters perished. His wife was rescued and sent a telegram that simply said, “I alone am saved. What shall I do?”
As soon as he could, Spafford boarded a ship to Europe to be with his wife. While on the long journey, when the ship came to the spot where the shipwreck happened and his daughters drowned, the captain of the ship found Spafford and let him know that this was where his daughters died.
It was there, overwhelmed with grief and sorrow, looking out over the vast ocean waters that swallowed up his precious and beloved daughters that Spafford wrote the words to what became “It is Well.”
