03 May, 1998
Author and Speaker, Elisabeth Elliot, who was a missionary in South America for 11 years, tells about an event that happened not long after the Arab-Israeli war in 1967, when she spent ten weeks in Jerusalem. She said that one afternoon she was invited to have tea with Mrs. Bertha Spafford Vester, who had lived there all of her ninety-one years. She was a fascinating woman, and was the fifth daughter of Horatio Spafford, who wrote the hymn, "It Is Well with My Soul."
The story of that beautiful hymn is familiar to many, but Mrs. Vester added details about the story that she says was new to her. The story goes that the great Chicago fire of the 1870s caused Spafford, a wealthy businessman, to take stock of his life. Wanting to know Jesus better, he decided to sell everything and move to the land where He had walked. Shortly before the ship sailed, Spafford was delayed by business, but took the family on to New York to board the ship and sail on to Europe. And for some reason which he was unable to explain he had the purser change their cabin, moving them closer to the bow. He returned to Chicago to finish his business, planning to join them later. Then came a telegram from his wife: SAVED ALONE. The ship had sunk. Mrs. Spafford had survived and made it to the mainland. Their four daughters had perished. Had they been in the cabin originally reserved amid ships, all five would have drowned, for it was just there that the steamer had been struck by another vessel.
Mrs. Elliot says that "as we sipped tea and munched on Arab sweets, Mrs. Vester, who was not born until after the disaster, told me how her mother had described that terrible black night when she and her four little girls were flung into the cold sea. Frantically, she had tried to save them. Barely, she had been able to touch with her fingertips the hem of the little gown of one, but could not grasp it. She herself had been miraculously rescued as she floated unconscious on a piece of flotsam. During Mr. Spafford's voyage to join his wife in France, the captain summoned him one day to the bridge. Pointing to his charts he explained that it was just here, where they were at that moment, that the other ship had gone down. It was that tragedy that inspire Spafford to write the hymn which has comforted countless thousands:
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
"It is well, it is well with my soul."
When it comes to affliction and trouble, the Christian is certainly not privileged to go through life without them. David the Psalmist could attest to that. When he wrote Psalm 34, he was well aware of the troubles and the afflictions he had been through. As a matter of fact, he wrote this Psalm remembering how he had pretended to be insane to escape the wrath of Abimilech. But he also wrote this Psalm remembering the fact that it was the Lord who was his deliverer. And it was this known fact that caused him to begin with a proclamation of praise. I'm sure that David was well aware of the fact that many of the troubles he experienced in his life was due to his own decisions but he was also obviously well aware of the fact that much of what he went through was simply due to the fact that he lived in a world filled with troubles. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all." (34:19) But the bottom line truth that anchored David's faith and very likely the faith of Horatio Spafford is found in the last verse of this Psalm. "The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned."
The key to David being so anchored was the trust he had in his Lord. We often speak of having trust but maybe we do not understand it as David did. The word he uses here literally means "to seek refuge, to flee for protection." Figuratively, it means "to put trust in God, to confide and hope in God." It is used literally of taking shelter from a rainstorm or from any other danger but it is used figuratively more often of seeking refuge and thus having a confident trust. This idea of taking refuge may well be derived from the common experience of a fugitive or of men at war who found that adjacent hills provided a ready safe height or a strong rock they could hurry to for protection. Someone has said, "To seek refuge stresses the insecurity and self helplessness of even the strongest men, It emphasizes the defensive or external aspect of salvation in God, who is the unchanging One in Whom we find shelter. David could see the cave to which he fled as a stronghold whereas others would see it as trap."
The truth is that as long as you are trusting in your own efforts and your own strength and your own ability to endure the troubles, you will never seek refuge in God alone. And you will never know the confidence that David had.And what is the promise for those who trust in the Lord and not in themselves - they will not be condemned. Throughout the many passages of Scripture where this word is used, it varies in how it is used. It may denote acts of sin, responsibility for sin, punishment for sin and even the aftermath of punishment. But perhaps it may be that the word denotes the totality of alienation from God, and its consequences."
The point that David seems to be making is that no matter what we have go through in this world, there is thing we can know for sure. God is our deliverer.
He is our deliverer, inevitably. Notice that David does not say when the Lord would deliver those who trust in Him. He just states that it is an inevitable fact. Spurgeon points out that "the same Lord who sends the afflictions will also recall them when his design is accomplished, but He will never allow the fiercest of them to rend and devour his beloved." So ultimately and eventually God will deliver those who trusts in Him from all the afflictions and troubles that we go through.
But David also declares that...
He is our deliverer, absolutely. God is the only One who can deliver us from that which alienates us from Him. He is the One who has made it possible for us to escape the punishment that we deserve. He is the One who has redeemed the soul of the one who trusts in Him and has brought deliverance from the guilt and condemnation of sin. Troubles may follow s - afflictions may be many, but the Lord delivers us from them all. And because of such confidence and trust David could say as Horatio Spafford wrote:
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
"It is well, it is well with my soul."
We have to believe that God is on our side and that He is our deliverer. We have to trust in His divine resources to deliver us from the adversities and afflictions that we face. It may not be today or tomorrow or next week or even next year, but eventually and inevitably, God will set us free from the pain and suffering of this world. And we have to totally rely on God's redeeming work through our Lord Jesus Christ. For those of us who have been redeemed, we no longer have to fear condemnation. We no longer have to worry about being alienated from God. Paul declares in Romans 8:1-2 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."
Those of us who have put our trust in His redemptive work, no longer have to fear eternity. And when you have that kind of confidence, it makes you look at your present circumstances in a different light. Elisabeth Elliot writes that "the word lot [as it is used in the hymn] is not one we often use in quite that way. It means whatever happens, that which comes by the will of the powers that rule our destiny, a share, a portion, an assignment. When we draw lots, no human power controls which will be ours. But Christians know that we are not at the mercy of chance. A loving hand, a great wisdom, and an omnipotent power rule our destiny. The government of all is on the mighty shoulders of Christ Himself, who sees all long before it happens. All is intended for our blessing."
That is obviously the way Mr. Spafford saw his afflictions. And maybe David had the same perspective as well. And maybe if we could, we would be able to declare the praise that David begins with in his 34th Psalm. And maybe we could all say:
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
"It is well, it is well with my soul."