Just Pondering
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Rick Branan |
For you are my hope, Lord God,
my confidence from my youth.
I have leaned on you from birth;
you took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is always about you.
I am like a miraculous sign to many,
and you are my strong refuge.
My mouth is full of praise
and honor to you all day long.
Psalm 71:5-8 (CSBBible)
Elisha Hoffman (1839-1929) after graduating from Union Seminary in Pennsylvania was ordained in 1868. As a minister he was appointed to the circuit in Napoleon, Ohio in 1872. He worked with the Evangelical Association's publishing arm in Cleveland for eleven years. He served in many chapels and churches in Cleveland and in Grafton in the 1880s, among them Bethel Home for Sailors and Seamen, Chestnut Ridge Union Chapel, Grace Congregational Church and Rockport Congregational Church. In his lifetime he wrote more than 2,000 gospel songs including "Leaning on the everlasting arms" (1894). The fifty song books he edited include Pentecostal Hymns No. 1 and The Evergreen, 1873.
Mary Louise VanDyke
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms
What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
leaning on the everlasting arms;
what a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
leaning on the everlasting arms.
Leaning, leaning,
safe and secure from all alarms;
leaning, leaning,
leaning on the everlasting arms.
O how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,
leaning on the everlasting arms;
O how bright the path grows from day to day,
leaning on the everlasting arms.
What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
leaning on the everlasting arms.
Written by E.A. Hoffman
Y’all know I love the “Andy Griffith Show.” I especially enjoy the episodes with the Darlings and Ernest T. Bass. In one show, Ernest T. was trying to interrupt the marriage of his beloved. At the start of the ceremony, Andy and the Darlings sang “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.” That scene always comes to mind when I sing this song.
E.A. Hoffman had a much different mindset when he wrote this hymn. His focus was on the arms of God. The psalmist had hope and confidence when he leaned on God. In fact, we can find refuge in God’s arms. A refuge is a safe place. The world often crashes in on us. Finances, family, and jobs are all sources of stress for most of us. Yet, dealing with those stresses we have, as Hoffman wrote, “blessed peace with my Lord so near.”
Jesus reminds us in Matthew, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest . . . for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Lean on Him!
Just pondering . . . Bro. Rick