My soul finds rest in God alone

Authors:
Themes:
Scriptures:
  • Ruth 2:12
  • Psalms 18:2
  • Psalms 28:3
  • Psalms 62
  • Jeremiah 17:10
  • Matthew 16:27
  • Luke 12:15
  • Romans 2:6
  • Revelation 2:23
Book Number:
  • 62

My soul finds rest in God alone;
on him my help depends.
He is my fortress and my rock;
salvation sure he sends.
My foes conspire to bring me down;
they scorn my troubled state:
their lips are quick to sound my praise,
but in their hearts they hate.

2. Find rest, my soul, in God alone;
on him my hope depends.
He is my fortress and my rock;
salvation sure he sends.
My aid and honour come from God,
my refuge strong and sure:
let all God’s servants trust the Lord;
in him we are secure.

3. The great of earth are less than dust;
all mortal strength is vain;
and fools alone rely on wealth
or prize ill-gotten gain.
I know, O God, that you are strong,
a faithful, loving Lord;
our every deed, both good and ill,
you surely will reward.

© 1987 CRC Publications
David J Diephouse

The Christian Life - Submission and Trust

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Tune

  • St Matthew
    St Matthew
    Metre:
    • CMD (Common Metre Double: 86 86 D)
    Composer:
    • Croft, William

The story behind the hymn

‘Truly my soul waiteth still upon God’ (Coverdale); ‘Finding rest’ is David Diephouse’s equivalent of this vital aspect of trust, now widely neglected but found to be essential by the original David. ‘For him … from him … on him … in him … to him …’; all these phrases are part of the Psalm, and the sense of them all is reflected in this version. ‘Alone’ is another key word, reflecting the repeated ‘only’ in some versions which has led some to call this the ‘only’ Psalm. Written in 1986, it appeared a year later (like 58) in the N American Psalter Hymnal of the Christian Reformed Church. It was set there to Tallis’ THIRD MODE MELODY. David Mowbray’s version is Rest in God, our God most mighty, and further approaches to parts of the Psalm come with the hymn 261 and the song at 759. ST MATTHEW, listed as a ‘modern form of a melody by William Croft’, is found in the 6th edn of the Supplement to the New Version of Psalms (‘Tate and Brady’) in 1708. There it is in the key of D, set to Psalm 33 (see 33). No composers’ names are given there, but it is marked as new; Croft probably edited the volume and contributed this tune, which all other 18th-c books credit to him.

A look at the author

Diephouse, David J

b 1947. He currently teaches history at Calvin Coll, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, including art, culture and liturgy but specialising in 19th and 20th c Europe. He has made a special study of the rise of Nazism in Germany, and has contributed articles and reviews on this theme. In 1987 he wrote Pastors and Pluralism in Wurttemburg 1918–1933, and in that year was a contributor to the Psalter Hymnal of the Christian Reformed Church in N America. No.62.