Beyond the Hymnal: It is Well with My Soul

“Many hardships and perplexing circumstances confront the righteous, but the Lord rescues him from them all.” (Psalm 34:19, AMP)

This Christmas, I was gifted a book that lists out 150 popular hymns, their sheet music, and a bio of where the hymn was inspired. I picked it up over the past few days and I’ve been leafing through it; finding the hymns I have sung all my life and reading the backstory on where they come from.

I have to admit, there are so many hymns that I don’t know, and yet the words to them are sincerely profound and beautiful. This past weekend, I found myself singing “It is Well with My Soul” over and over again as I did housework, so I decided to look it up in the book and find out the inspiration from the song.

Horatio G. Spafford was an attorney living in Chicago at the time of the Great Fire in 1871. He had amassed a small fortune in real estate investment that literally went up in smoke. Around the same time, his young son died of scarlet fever. Spafford decided to deal with his grief by giving back and working to not only help rebuild Chicago, but to also work in getting thousands of people left homeless after the fire off the streets.

After two years, Horatio and his wife, Anna, decided to vacation in England where an  evangelistic event was taking place. The family booked passage on a transatlantic ship called the Ville du Havre when suddenly, an urgent matter arose that would keep Horatio in the United States a little longer. The family decided to travel ahead and Horatio would catch up with them not long after. He settled his wife and four daughters on the ship, waving goodbye and promising he’d see them soon.

Unfortunately, overnight on November 22, 1873, the Ville du Havre collided with another vessel and quickly sank. This resulted in 226 fatalities and among those were all of Horatio’s daughters: Maggie, Tanetta, Annie, and Bessie. Anna Spafford was found clinging to wreckage and was one of just 47 survivors. She sent word to Horatio via transmission that only said, “Saved alone.”

Devastated, Horatio booked passage to meet his wife in Europe. As he made that journey across the Atlantic, the captain pulled him aside one night to tell him that he believed their vessel was now crossing over where the Ville du Havre sank. Horatio returned to his room aboard the ship and sat awake pondering what he had lost. 

He said to himself, “It is well. The will of God be done.” Thus, he penned the famous poem that would one day be set to music by Philip Bliss and become the hymn we all know as “It is Well with My Soul.”

I cannot imagine loss the way Horatio Spafford knew it. He lost his financial stability in a fire and all of his five children tragically over the course of two years. He put his family on a boat, fully intending to see them again, and didn’t know it would be the last time he’d hold his daughters. His whole world was changed by two words: Saved. Alone. Unable to help from another hemisphere. Unable to grieve with his wife from across the world. 

Then, to realize in his mad dash to be with his wife, that he was crossing over the very place his daughters died. Unable to reach down through the depths and save them. Unable to bring them home. 

Most would turn from God in that moment, after having sustained such loss. Most would buckle under that kind of grief. Most would not be able to cope with a God that would ordain such a thing and allow it to happen.

And even in that moment, in a physical place of such loss, he was able to say, “It is well. The will of God be done.” That’s peace that surpasses all understanding: to say in your situation of absolute devastation that it’s okay and God’s will is still supremely over it all. To know the depths of despair intimately, and still say it is well.

If someone could sing that tune in their darkest moment and still be reminded of the hope they have in Jesus, no wonder it lifts our eyes to Jesus as we go through the mundanity of life. 

Just like the psalm says: the righteous will know hardship. We will go through it. We will feel it right where it hurts. There will be sorrow. There will be grief. There will be frustration and uncertainty and loss. But the Lord rescues us from it all, whether in this life, or by taking us home to eternity to be with Him. And in fact, that’s perhaps why He ordains the afflictions we walk through– so that we can rest assured that He has not left anyone that He has already saved. 

Even though Horatio stood on that ship, crossing over a dark ocean holding four of his deepest treasures, he wasn’t really alone. Jesus was there. Jesus was supplying the peace of His Holy Spirit to where Horatio could honestly say that it was well. It was going to be okay. God knew something Horatio didn’t. God’s will was still being done, even though he could never understand why, and that gave him hope. 

If you’re walking through affliction or sorrow today, I am sorry. But be encouraged by the fact that God is with you and He is your hope. He is your rescue. He is your peace. No matter how you may feel, or how haunted the ground under your feet feels, the Lord is still your rescuer and that should give you hope. 

It is well. It is going to be okay. God has never let any of us fall out of His hand.

It is Well/I Exalt Thee by Celtic Worship & Praise Gathering

Originally written by Horatio G. Spafford and set to music by Philip Bliss