Musical Notes

Hello OCBC family,
“For God alone my soul waits in silence;
    from him comes my salvation.” Psalm 62:1.

This passage is very powerful and at the same time full of peace, because David is putting his hope in God, but he is doing in silence, waiting on God. In verse two, David called God his rock of salvation, and his fortress.

This passage has been the inspiration for many hymns, and one of them is “Be Still, My Soul.” And the author of this hymn is Katharine von Schlegel, a German poet who was born on 21 October 1697, and her hymns reflected the spirit of the early Pietism, a movement within the Lutheran church. Its emphasis was on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christian life.

“Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side;
bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
in every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; thy best, thy heav'nly Friend
through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.”

The version in English that we are familiar with, was made by Jane Borthwick, a lady for Scotland. With her sister, she worked on a collection of hymns called “Hymns from the Land of Luther.”

This hymn became popular during World War II, bringing peace to soldiers during hard times.

“Be still, my soul; when dearest friends depart,
and all is darkened in the veil of tears,
then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul; thy Jesus can repay
from His own fullness all He takes away.”

The sweet melody is a part of a larger work by Jean Sibelius, a composer from Finland, a poem for orchestra, and it is at the end of this work that we can hear this theme, and latter on became the melody for von Schlegel’s hymn.

I said that this hymn came from Psalm 62:1, but also, it can be an echo of the Psalm 46:10, where is our God who tells us to be still, and that he is our fortress.

10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

OCBC, wait in the Lord, because after all, he is our protection during our hard times, and one day we will reign with him in our eternal home.

“Be still, my soul; the hour is hast'ning on
when we shall be forever with the Lord,
when disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul; when change and tears are past,
all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.”

In His service,
Israel