He Hideth My Soul

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

Fanny Crosby was an amazing woman of God. She was born in 1823 and at the tender age of only 6 weeks was blinded by improper medical treatment. She never blamed God for her infirmity but instead wrote hundreds of hymns to give Him honor and glory.

 

One classic hymn written by Ms. Crosby was, “He Hideth My Soul.” When I sing this in church it brings back tons of memories of my upbringing in the Baptist church in Maud, Oklahoma. While many things in youth are lost to the storage file bins of aging, many memories can be revived through singing such a familiar song. This is the case whenever I sing these words. As I think of the words to this song, new treasures of meaning flood my heart, mind and soul. I want to share some of them with you and possibly you can appreciate, as I do, the ministry of Fanny Crosby as it lives on in her songs.

 

The hymn begins with the words of the first verse.

 

A wonderful Saviour is Jesus my Lord,

A wonderful Saviour to me;

He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,

Where rivers of pleasure I see.

 

We would all agree that we have a wonderful Savior and the words that follow may have more meaning than you think. Once we accept Christ as our Savior our very soul belongs to Him. Fanny Crosby said it like this, “He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock, where rivers of pleasure I see.” I thought of how in high school an elderly gentleman taught me how to pan for gold. He took me up on the Trinity River and we panned the bedrock of the riverbed for gold nuggets. The best place to look for gold nuggets was in the clefts of the rock. Here the gold nuggets fell because of the slower moving water. Once inside one of these clefts they would gradually settle down deeper and deeper into the crevice safe from the roaring river waters above. It’s interesting that Ms. Crosby says that in the cleft she sees rivers of pleasures. Why does she say this? Because when you are in the safety net of God, protected from the destruction of the world around you, you can see nothing but the pleasures of God. It’s also curious that though Ms. Crosby was blind, she still reflected on what sight might reveal physically as she describes what it is spiritually true.

 

Another observation of this verse of the song is that our rock of salvation is Jesus Christ our Lord. God hides our soul in Christ when we make the commitment to serve Jesus as our Lord. Such a place to be hidden is safe and secure from the ravages of life that swirl about us. Christ is a solid rock. He never changes and cannot be moved. In Him we see the eternal pleasures of heaven our true home. In Him we see self-sacrifice and undying love. In Him we see the Shepherd King, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. In Him we experience new life and eternal life. In Him and through Him we experience a relationship with the one, true living God. What a place to have your soul hidden, in the rock of our salvation.

 

Fanny Crosby continues on with the words of her chorus:

 

He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock

That shadows a dry, thirsty land;

He hideth my life in the depths of His love,

And covers me there with His hand,

And covers me there with His hand.

 

This cleft of the rock of which she writes, shadows a dry thirsty land. I believe this tells us that our souls as believers in Christ are hidden in this cleft that is located high above the dry thirsty lands below. If you think about it, before we accepted Christ as our Savior we lived in the dry and thirsty land. We had no relationship with Christ. We lived our lives for ourselves. Our soul was parched and dry as a bone. We had hard hearts, bleached rock solid by sin in our lives and all the selfish tendencies that come with it. Once we were given new life in Christ our thirst was quenched with the living water that Christ gives us. He transformed our stony hearts into tender hearts of love. He takes us out of the pit of the dry and thirsty land and hides us in the cleft of the rock, in the depths of His love, as Fanny Crosby would say.

 

Once there He covers us with His hand. Why make such a statement, because it gives the image of love and security? Once when I was very, very young I put on a shirt that my mother had just pulled from the clothesline. It felt good, clean and fresh. The problem was I felt something moving inside the shirt. I pulled out the neck of the shirt and looked down inside. There inside the shirt, very close to my tender skin was a huge wolf spider that apparently had made itself at home when my mother took it off the clothesline. Well needless to say my young spirit was horrified and all I remember was screaming at the top of my lungs. My dad grabbed me, took off the shirt and held me ever so close with his large arms and hands. He covered me with his hands to comfort a deathly-frightened young boy. That is what Fanny Crosby means when she says God hides us in the cleft of the rock and covers us there with His hands. In Christ, in our relationship with our Lord, in the presence of God’s Holy Spirit, the loving, powerful, gentle hands of our Majestic Heavenly Father cover us. How else could you describe such a secure and safe place to be than covered by the hands of a loving Father?

 

Fanny Crosby continues with her second verse.

 

A wonderful Saviour is Jesus my Lord

He taketh my burden away;

He holdeth me up and I shall not be moved,

He giveth me strength as my day.

 

We all carry burdens in life. We struggle with their weight. We worry and fret about how we’re going to cope. I wonder if God is walking along beside us through all our struggles offering to carry these burdens, but we don’t have the ears to hear Him. Possibly we hear Him but feel we can do fine without Him? Matthew 11:30 tells us that Jesus’ yoke is easy and His burden is light. Why, because He can carry the load on His shoulders. We are encouraged to trust in Him. We are told to cast our cares upon Him. We are also given the comforter, the Holy Spirit, to help us cope with the difficulties of life, once we accept Christ as Lord and Savior.

 

Fanny Crosby goes on to say in the verse that God holds us up and we shall not be moved. Have you ever worn a back brace? It gives you the support to carry on in life despite the weakness of a bad back. It can reduce pain and suffering. In a sense, Jesus is our back brace. He supports us and lifts us up so that as life beats against us we are able to stand and not be moved. The strength with which we stand is not our own. It comes from the Mighty Lord God Almighty. Psalms 118:14 testifies to this. All we must do is rest in Him. Allow Him to hide our soul in the cleft of the Rock and cover us with His hands. He gives us strength throughout the day as we are battered by the trials and struggles of life.

 

Fanny Crosby continues with yet another verse.

 

With numberless blessings

each moment He crowns,

And, filled with His fullness divine,

I sing in my rapture, “O glory to God

For such a Redeemer as mine!”

 

What a spiritual insight this woman of God had. She recognized that the blessings that God bestows upon us are numberless. Every moment God grants us another breath of air to live by. He keeps our heart pumping the blood necessary for life. He graces us in so many ways through the day that we can’t even imagine it. I believe Fanny Crosby had a glimpse of it though. She describes such blessings as filled with His fullness divine. Who else could provide and grant the breath of life to billions of people throughout each day? Who else could hold the stars in His hand and keep all things working together so that we don’t fly off the planet? Who else administrates the actions of nations across the world? Who restrains Satan and his hideous horde from overtaking God’s creation? While God does allow evil to exist for the present, He does so for a reason. He desires that every person be given a chance to obtain salvation and He wishes for us to be witnesses of Him in the midst of such evil. This brings glory to Him. In the midst of evil He puts us His children, His servants, to be a righteous influence. When you consider such a thought you can’t help but sing out with Fanny Crosby “O glory to God for such a Redeemer as mine!”

 

Her last verse reminds us of our eventual trip home.

 

When clothed in His brightness transported I rise

To meet Him in clouds of the sky,

His perfect salvation, His wonderful love,

I’ll shout with the millions on high.

 

One day, not too far away, Christ will return and we will be clothed in brightness and be transported to meet Him in the clouds. We’ll gaze on His face, look at the millions around us and shout of His perfect salvation and His wonderful love.

 

Thank God our souls are hidden in the cleft of the ROCK!