Abide with Me
Hymns play a very important part in our worship, by singing we in a sense give ourselves in praise and adoration to Almighty God.
For this to work there are a number of essential components, ingredients:
• The words, ideally based on Scripture and full of meaning
• The music which inspires and adds to the meaning of what we are trying to sing
• Being lead by a choir that is familiar with the hymn and emphasizes the meaning of the hymn
Abide with Me” is one of our best-loved hymns and is usually associated with funerals and Evensong.
It is a hymn we are all familiar with but is far more flexible in its use than just funerals and evensong – e.g. it was used in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics.
So what makes this hymn so popular?
The words, of course, have a lot to do with it. Each verse ends with the plea “abide with me,” making the hymn a sustained call for God’s personal presence in every stage and condition of life.
1. Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.
2. Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see—
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
3. I need Thy presence every passing hour;
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
4. I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
5. Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
The hymn resonates deeply within the hearts of all those who feel their need for God:
• Help of the helpless, O abide with me. . . .
• Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
• In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
The hymn was written by Henry Francis Lyte, vicar of All Saints Church in Brixham, England.
For most of his life Henry Lyte suffered from poor health, and he would regularly travel abroad for relief, as was the tradition in that day.
He developed tuberculosis at the age of 54 and as he came near to the end of his life he decided to preach what became his last sermon.
That evening he placed in the hands of a near and dear relative this little hymn, ‘Abide with Me’
Then just weeks later, while recuperating on holiday in Nice, Henry Lyte died.
The words that make up this hymn can be so easily adapted for our own personal prayers.
Short but very direct prayers, Arrow prayers said from our hearts to the heart of God – a bull’s eye.
• When life gets difficult – O Lord Abide with me
• When sorrows overwhelm and life seems unbearable - O Lord Abide with me
• When the going gets tough – O Lord Abide with me
• When I’m lonely – O Lord Abide with me
• When I’m sick and in despair – O Lord Abide with me
• When evening comes and the night seems long – O Lord Abide with me
• Come, Friend of sinners, and thus Abide with me. . .
• When dying hold my hand and – Lord Abide with me
• In life and in death O Lord - Abide with me
Have you ever found a parking ticket on your car?
For years a man parked his car in a nearby alley close to his home, it had never had a ticket. So he thought, it must be OK.
One morning he found a parking ticket on his car and he wondered what was going on, so to play safe he decided to park his car elsewhere.
A few days later, during a terrible storm, the wind was so strong that a gigantic oak fell right across the place where he once parked his car.
Had his car still been there, it would have been smashed. - He humbly thanked God for that ticket!
So far 2020 has had a very unique and disturbing year – unique in that society has never been in a lockdown situation like this before and disturbing in that we don’t know where it’s going and when it will end.
This is where I believe the Christian faith has a lot to help and reassure us on our path to life.
Being confined to our homes and being isolated from our friends, our families and those we love is very hard and upsetting.
But there is light at the end of the lockdown tunnel – we are here and that is evidence and it will get better.
There is a lot of truth in the sayings that have been pasted down through the ages - and this one comes immediately to my mind and is so true in many aspects: ‘Every cloud has a silver lining’
All may be dark and dismal now in the midst of that dark forbidding storm cloud – but it moves on, it doesn’t stay forever and so the silver lining is revealed.
Things will be different as we evolve into another period of our lives with lessons learnt and hope for the future.
Hope is like lighting a candle in the darkness -“Others see only a hopeless end, but the Christian sees an endless hope.”
“What oxygen is to the lungs, so hope is for the soul’s meaning of life.”
As Hebrews 11 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”
Hope is the confident expectation of something good in the future.
To “hope in God” doesn’t mean, “Cross your fingers;” it means, in the words of William Carey, “Expect great things from God.”
For me it simply means a life without hope is no life at all – hope gives meaning to life and makes it worthwhile.
A young man went out into the woods with his camera to take a few photographs. He stopped at the entrance of a cave on a rocky hillside.
“I wonder what kind of picture I can get out of this cave?” Steadying the camera just a little way from the mouth of the cave, he gave the film a long exposure into the darkness of the interior.
When he later developed the film a wave of terror passed over him. In the centre of the opening – but concealed from his eyes by the darkness – crouched a huge Lynx, with its eyes fixed upon him and ready to leap!
Danger, disfigurement, or death were only a few feet away from him, but he didn’t know it!
How wonderful that God protects us from dangers we don’t even know exist!
As Peter said in our 2nd lesson, God has “given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” Eternal life with God is our hope!
The hymn, ‘Abide with me’ is a hymn of reassurance, reassurance of hope that we are never alone, come what may we are never left to our own devices, never alone - abide with me
Henry Francis Lyte was also a published poet and accomplished hymnwriter who also wrote another fantastic hymn, “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven.”.
The poem 'Footsteps in the sand' says it all:
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."
He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."
