God My Rock

A hymn based on 2 Samuel 22

Editor’s Note:

Happy Tuesday. James returns to deliver a lovely poem based on the Book of Samuel. He has offered an introductory note below.

Enjoy.

- Frank Theodat

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Photo by Ian Stauffer on Unsplash

An introductory note:

We’ll rove widely in this poetry column, the others will chip in too, and we’ll have sonnets, ballads, hymns, limericks, analysis and all sorts. But for this column I thought I’d take a hymn of mine and offer a few notes on it.

A hymn, for the uninitiated, being a poem in standard meter which can be sung to a variety of tunes. This is one I wrote two weeks ago, based on 2 Samuel 22. You can read that here before diving in:

https://www.esv.org/2+Samuel+22/

Throughout, David refers to God as his rock (verses 2, 32 and 47) which gave me my theme, and I decided to base each of my hymn verses on the sections that start with those phrases.

The eagle-eyed will note that there are in fact four verses. That’s because compressing everything from v2 - 31 in the chapter was a little much, so I split it into 2 - 6 and 8 - 31.

In my defence v8 starts “Then the earth reeled and rocked;”

That counts, right?

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Meter: 8.7.8.7.8.7

Tune: Regent Square

Text:

God my rock, he is my fortress.
He my strength, my shield, my song.
Held by arms whose might is endless
I am safe though foes be strong.
Held by him whose love is boundless
I am safe though night be long.

God my rock set heaven quaking
shook the earth and dried the sea.
On this rock my foes are breaking
In its shadow I am free!
When my enemies were raging
God sent down to rescue me.

God my rock, there is no other,
My strong refuge in the night.
Gentle Lord, my faithful brother,
Sets my feet firm on the heights.
None are safe who trust another,
He alone brings life and light.

God my rock who lives forever,
Blessed be his mighty name!
Vengeance-giver, strong deliverer,
Lord who rescued me from shame.
I will praise you now and ever,
Through the ages still the same.