Nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee

Sarah Flower Adams was someone who went through many hardships in her life. Her mother passed away when she was five years old, and when her sister Elisa was suffering from tuberculosis, Sarah took great care of her and yet her sister passed away. Two years later, the forty-three-year-old Sarah also departed from this world having suffered from tuberculosis. But it was after leaving us a beautiful song that she left this world. 

And that song is, ‘Nearer my God to Thee’.

Sarah found great delight in composing songs. One day, a man of God, after he had taught Genesis 28: 10 – 19, encouraged Sarah to write a song based on the text. In the years to come, that song turned out to be a song that drew many hearts to the Lord. It is believed that when Titanic was sinking, the crew in the ship was singing this song in those last moments of their lives.

This song, which is rather forgotten these days, awakened my heart!  And may all our hearts be awakened by the dream that Jacob saw when, alone in the desert, he lay down and rested his head on a stone. Yes, the Lord is with me, this place is the Bethel, the house of the Lord, and in these days of trials and sorrows, let us stand nearer and nearer to the Lord!

Lord, may my heart draw nearer to You … let me bear Your cross and let this be my only song … my loneliness, my wounds, my pains, disappointments, worries, emptiness … Lord, words can’t express them. Yet in my dreams, in all my ways, in all my afflictions … nearer to Thee, my Lord! 

Or Lord, if You call me, or if the promise of Your coming is fulfilled … whatever may happen, may my song be this alone: Nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee …

And even when my soul soars high across the skies, sovereign Lord, my song is nothing but ‘Nearer my Lord to Thee’. 

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Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!

E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me;

Still all my song shall be nearer, my God, to Thee,

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!

Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,

Darkness be over me, my rest a stone;

Yet in my dreams I'd be nearer, my God, to Thee,

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!

There let the way appear steps unto heav'n;

All that Thou sendest me in mercy giv'n;

Angels to beckon me nearer, my God, to Thee,

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!

Then with my waking thoughts bright with Thy praise,

Out of my stony griefs Bethel I'll raise;

So by my woes to be nearer, my God, to Thee,

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!

Or if on joyful wing, cleaving the sky,

Sun, moon, and stars forgot, upwards I fly,

Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee,

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!