While singing the other night with my family, we randomly picked this song out of the hymnal. I've known the tune for as long as I can remember, and have sung it at various times, in various places...... but it's never been one that I've learned by heart, or even sung very often. Therefore, the words really came home to me as they so perfectly fit with what the Lord has been showing me lately on Hope and trusting in His promises.
Day by day and with each passing moment,
strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my father's kind bestowment,
I've no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure
gives unto each day what He deems best -
Lovingly, it's part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.
Help me then in every tribulation
So to trust Your promises O Lord,
That I lose not faith's sweet consolation
offered me within Your holy Word.
Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,
E'er to take, as from a father's hand,
One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,
til I reach the promised land.
After singing this song, I decided to look up the author (Carolina Sandell) and the circumstances surrounding it's writing. I found a very interesting story......
The daughter of a Lutheran minister, Carolina grew up in the rectory at Froderyd, Smaland in Sweden. At the age of 26 she accompanied her father Jonas on a boat trip across Lake Vattern, during which he fell overboard and drowned in her presence. The tragedy inspired some of her first hymns as she poured out her broken heart in many of her songs. She would eventually write over six hundred hymns and become known as the Fanny Crosby of Sweden. Many of Lina's hymns were made popular by a traveling evangelist named Oscar Ahnfelt. Ahnfelt's ministry was received with animosity by some, and eventually the King was petitioned to forbid his preaching and singing. The King refused until he himself heard him in person, so he bade Ahnfelt appear before him. Unsure what to sing, Ahnfelt went to Lina Sandell and asked her to write a hymn for the occasion. When he appeared before the King, he sang the following words:
Who is it that knocketh upon your heart's door in peaceful eve?
Who is it that brings to the wounded and sore the balm that can heal and relieve?
Your heart is still restless, it findeth no peace in earth's pleasures;
Your soul is still yearning, it seeketh release to rise to the heavenly treasures.
After listening with tears in his eyes, the king gripped Ahnfelt by the hand and said "You may sing as much as you like in both of my kingdoms!"
