Daily Devotional

Today I turned forty. I don’t really feel forty but alas, here we are, four decades of life and almost all of them as a follower of Christ. I can look back and see plenty of examples of God’s faithfulness in my life and I often wonder, what would my life look like without Him. But as I take stock of the last forty years and prepare for the next forty the song How Firm a Foundation came to mind. I grew up in a musical family, my dad was a choir teacher and for a while the music pastor and my mom sang in the choir, and so music has always had a special place in my heart. Music connects with me in a very deep way and as a result, I have come to love many of the old hymns of the faith.

Old hymns are so packed with scriptural truths and the more you dig into them the deeper they seem. And so as a way of commemorating these last forty years and as I prepare for what lies ahead, I would like How Firm a Foundation to be my life’s theme if you will. So let’s look at the lyrics and the scripture those lyrics are pulled from.

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He has said,
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

How firm a foundation we have in the Word of the Lord, the scripture that has been handed down to us for generations. What more can He say to us than has already been said? It’s all right there in the Word of God, our promises, our hope, our salvation! This stanza comes from Hebrews 6:17–18 which concludes that “we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.”

Fear not! I am with you, O be not dismayed;
For I am your God, and will still give thee aid.
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

After the first stanza describing the foundation on which we stand we now begin to hear about the promises of God. The first here is found in Isaiah 41:10 telling us that we don’t need to be afraid for He is our God and will help us. He will give us strength and we are sustained not by our righteousness, but by his righteous and all-powerful hand!

When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all-sufficient, shall be your supply.
The flame shall not hurt you, I only design
Your dross to consume and your gold to refine.

In 1 Peter 1:6–7, we read that we will endure various trials as a testing of our faith, but that it is ultimately for our edification. The picture here is that of refining gold, burning off the undesirable portion, the dross, in order to uncover the pure gold. God will be our grace in the midst of the trials that are refining our faith to make us more like Him.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to his foes.
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake.

This is my favorite stanza of the song, the statement that God will not leave us to the enemy. Just like Satan asked to test Job in the Old Testament, the Devil would love to shake our faith to convince us that God is not there for us. But even though all Hell should endeavor to shake us, God will never leave us nor forsake us! This is echoed in both Deuteronomy 31:6–7 and Hebrews 13:5.
 
I pray that as I begin my next forty years, this song and the promises found within, which are rooted in the Word of God, will be the theme of my life, especially as the world gets darker and darker, the promises found here and in hymns like it will need to ring in my mind as I stand strong for Christ!

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.