• Stand By Me

  Contributed by Dr. Larry Petton on Oct 13, 2024 (message contributor)

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  Scripture:  Psalms 46

  Tags:  Marriage, Support, Loyalty, God's Promises, Hymns, Friends, Songs, Black Spirituals, Gospel Songs  (view more)  (view less)

  Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

STAND BY ME

I played the video of the song, "Stand By Me" by Home Free in a recent worship service right before I came up to preach. Our people wondered: "Pastor Larry, why play a secular song for a Sunday morning service??"

Maybe I need to share what I discovered about the background of this great song.

In 1960, Ben E. King was inspired to update the early 20th-century gospel hymn "Stand by Me" by Charles Albert Tindley, who was a pastor and son of an American slave, which was based on Psalm 46, "will not we fear, though the Earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." According to the documentary History of Rock 'n' Roll, King had no intention of recording the song himself. King had written it for the Drifters, who passed on recording it.

After the "Spanish Harlem" recording session in 1960, King had some studio time left over. The session's producers, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, asked if he had any more songs. King played it on the piano for them. They liked it so much that they called the studio musicians back in to record it immediately.

So, this great song has roots in black spirituals and Gospel hymns and it is really about how God stands by us in the storms of life and how we stand by our loved ones when times get tough.

The song has also proved as enduring as the love that inspired it: for Ben E. King and his wife, Betty, stood by each other for more than 50 years—until his death in 2015.

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