When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
One might think that such words were written during a time of happiness. The author of the hymn, Horatio G. Spafford (1828-1888), starts off by mentioning “peace like a river.” It is easy for a person’s soul to ‘be well’ when things are sailing smoothly. But Spafford’s situation at the time he wrote this hymn was something that would be unbearable for many of us. To use his own metaphor, the sorrows were indeed rolling like sea billows.
Spafford had been a successful lawyer and businessman in Chicago and had invested a great deal in property. The Great Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed most of his property and nearly ruined him financially. The economic downturn of 1873 was a further blow. Presumably as a way to get reprieve from these unfortunate events, Spafford decided to take a trip to Europe with his family. He couldn’t travel with his family right away, however, as zoning issues in Chicago required his attention. It was decided that his wife and five children would travel ahead of him and that he would join them after he had finished his business. While sailing in the Atlantic, the ship his family was on, the S. S. Ville du Havre, struck another vessel and quickly sank. Only his wife survived.
Spafford soon rejoined his wife and sailed for Europe with her alone. While his ship was passing the site where the Ville du Havre sank, he was moved to write the hymn It Is Well With My Soul.
The hymn has more verses which can be found here:
http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/t/i/itiswell.htm
Pretty heavy stuff, right? I have lost immediate family members, but can only imagine the pain of being a parent and having to live through the death of all five of your children. Spafford’s reaction to the situation is quite remarkable. Not only was he able to be well in his soul; he was able to praise the Lord in this situation (he concludes the third verse with “Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!”). How could he do this? We’ll explore a few matters to answer this question:
The Secret of Sufficiency
The suffering of the Apostle Paul is well documented in the New Testament. He was persecuted by both the Gentiles and his own people, the Jews. He was beaten, humiliated and thrown into prison multiple times for preaching the gospel. Yet in the worst situations, Paul was not only able to be sustained; he was able to rejoice! How was he able to do this? He had learned a crucial “secret”.
Philippians 4:12-13
“I know also how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to hunger, both to abound and to lack. I am able to do all things in Him who empowers me.”
In this well-known passage, Paul unveiled to the members of the church in Philippi that Christ was the key to thrive in any type of situation. Paul took Christ as his sufficiency at all times – whether they were good or bad. Therefore, he knew how to be content. Whether he was in the comfort of a home meeting in Prisca and Aquila’s house (Romans 16:5) or being stoned to the point of being considered dead (Acts 14:19), Christ was his real supply and enjoyment. Because Paul took Christ during the peaceful times, he was able to take Christ and be at rest during the turbulent times. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The same must have been the case with Horatio G. Spafford. It’s highly unlikely that Spafford was new to deep experiences of the Lord at the time of these tragedies; otherwise the hardship of them might have caused him to be like those described in Matthew 13:6, who got scorched and withered up when hard times or persecution came. Spafford must have had very, very deep roots in the Lord to be able to endure what he did – and to even write such profound and compelling words in the wake of it…which brings me to my next point.
Having Deep Roots in the Lord
In the previously mentioned passage in Matthew 13, different types of “earth” are listed. According to the Lord’s own interpretation of His parable, these types of earth signify different types of people – specifically in how they respond when the gospel of the kingdom is presented to them. Some reject it totally, some receive it with joy but are not able to suffer hardships or persecution inherent to the kingdom life, some receive the word but are eventually won back to the cares of the age rather than the Lord, and some are the “good earth” – those who have a heart “that is not hardened by worldly traffic, that is without hidden sins, and that is without the anxiety of the age and the deceitfulness of riches. Such a heart gives every inch of its ground to receive the word that the word may grow, bear fruit, and produce even a hundredfold.” (note 1 of Matt 13:8, RcV)
Being the “good earth” implies having room in one’s being for the Lord to establish Himself deeply. Paul has some excellent words on this subject in Colossians:
Colossians 2:6-7
“As therefore you have received the Christ, Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, Having been rooted and being built up in Him, and being established in the faith even as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
I’d like to bring out the significance of the three bold phrases:
a) “You Have Received” – As Christians, we know that we have received Christ. John 1:12 tells us that “As many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God).” Paul’s idea of receiving Christ is a bit more specific in Colossians, though. Throughout the epistle, Paul draws direct comparisons between the Good Land in the Old Testament and Christ as the reality. Most Christians realize that Christ is the reality of the offerings in the Old Testament, but how many know that Christ is also the Good Land? Paul tells us that Christ is our allotted portion (Col. 1:12) – just as the Children of Israel received an allotted portion of physical land when they entered Canaan.
b) “Walk in Him” – “As we have received Christ, we should walk in Him. Here to walk is to live, to act, to behave, and to have our being. We should walk, live, and act in Christ that we may enjoy His riches, just as the children of Israel lived in the good land, enjoying all its rich produce. The good land today is Christ as the all-inclusive Spirit (Gal. 3:14), who dwells in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16) to be our enjoyment. To walk according to this Spirit (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16) is the central and crucial point in the New Testament.” (note 2 of Col. 2:6, Rcv)
c) “Rooted and being built up in Him” – Just as a plant with deep roots is more likely to survive a storm or even intense heat from the sun, we need to have deep roots in Christ, the reality of the good land. One characteristic of roots: they are not visible; they are not exposed. What does this mean with regard to the Christian life? This means that we need to have, in addition to our corporate relationship with Christ which includes the other believers, a private relationship with Him that no one else knows about. This was certainly what Paul and Horatio Spafford had established in their Christian lives. From there, they could move on to being built up in Him – which is for the Body of Christ.
Prayer: Lord, bring us into a daily practice of walking in You and being built up in You. Teach us in our experience to discover You as the secret to sufficiency. We don’t to be ones that only sing your praises during the peaceful times. We don’t want to be ones that only cry out to You during the turbulent times. We want to cooperate with You to have a balanced, enjoying, living, rejoicing daily Christian life! Amen.
Further Reading:
The All Inclusive Christ by Witness Lee
Life Study of Philippians by Witness Lee
The following blog entry:
http://thelatterdays.blogspot.com/2012/10/it-is-well-with-my-soul.html
Let Him Sing Praise! 