Blessed Assurance
A brilliant and deep hymn by famous Methodist hymnwriter Fanny Crosby, who was blind.
Welcome to another Friday Classic Hymn! I hope you're enjoying the series. Every week we look at a hymn, we look at its history, its lyrics, and then I'll play the song. If you want to skip to one of those sections, you can find the timestamps below.
Today we're looking at a favourite hymn: Blessed Assurance.
The Story Behind "Blessed Assurance"
Blessed Assurance was written by none other than Fanny Crosby, the great Fanny Crosby. She was a prolific hymn writer in the 1800s. She wrote this one and one or two other favourites that we will definitely be looking at in this series. Probably most well known of all her hymns is Blessed Assurance. This one has been sung since she wrote it and continues to be sung today. It's one of those hymns that certain churches do still sing quite regularly.
Fanny Crosby became blind when she was six weeks old. Some bad medical treatment robbed her of her sight, but what an amazing person. If you read her biographies or her autobiography, she talks about how she didn't seem to worry about this. She was so excited about opening her eyes one day to see Jesus when she met Him on the other side. It didn't seem to bother her, her blindness. An amazing person, and she wrote all sorts of incredible hymns.
This one was written in 1873 when Fanny was visiting friends of hers. Her friend Phoebe wrote a beautiful piece of music. During this visit, Phoebe was playing this piece of music and said to Fanny Crosby, "What does this make you think of when you hear this tune?" She came straight out with the first verse. She just said, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!" The talent to come up with words like that on the spot is really ridiculous. She ended up writing the rest of it, and the two immediately went together—this famous tune and these amazing words. I think really it's an important part of Fanny Crosby's legacy, because these words are very important.
What Do the Lyrics of "Blessed Assurance" Mean?
The words of the song are very Wesleyan. Fanny Crosby was a Methodist and was involved in the Holiness movement of the late 1800s. You can see the theology in her hymns is very Wesleyan. Wesley's theology has often been summed up in the four alls—it wasn't his phrasing, but if you look at his teaching, the four alls are there. They are that all need to be saved, all can be saved, all can know that they are saved, and all can be saved to the uttermost. You see a lot of this in this hymn.
"All can know they are saved" is the doctrine of assurance, and that was a very Wesleyan thing. He was very concerned about people knowing and being assured of their salvation. So she wrote these beautiful words.
Verse 1: Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine
In the first verse, let's look at it: Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.
She was completely assured of her position as one of Jesus' children, one of God's children. Jesus is mine—I'm so assured that He is mine. It sounds a lot like Hebrews 10:22, which says, "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith."
Do you have that assurance today, that blessed assurance that you are His and He is yours?
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.
She goes on to say that just knowing that you belong to God is a foretaste of glory, a foretaste of the great divine glory that you'll know one day when you're in His presence in heaven.
Heir of salvation, purchase of God.
She's talking about herself, or all of us. We're heirs; we are in line to receive salvation from God as a gift handed down, not as something we've earned. Purchase of God—He's the one who bought it. We didn't buy our salvation; Jesus bought it on the cross and gave it to us as a gift.
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
This is an amazing summary of the Christian life, of the life of someone who is saved. You are born, reborn, born again of His Spirit and washed in the blood, cleansed. These words are so deep, and they really summarise our faith in an amazing way.
Verse 2: Perfect Submission, Perfect Delight
Let's look at verse 2, which says this:
Perfect submission, perfect delight (although some have got the words as perfect communion, perfect delight—both of them link up with what she's saying here).
Perfect delight comes from submitting to God or being in communion with God. Again, she has a very Wesleyan word: perfect. Although it was one he didn't really like that much because of the misunderstandings that came from it, he believed in a complete salvation—that we could be saved from sin and be perfectly obedient to God in this world. For her, perfect submission brought perfect delight.
If we've completely committed to God and submitted to Him, we can find great delight and joy in this life. But not if we're only halfway there or if we're holding anything back. It's only in complete communion and submission with God that we find delight.
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight.
Now, this is a blind lady saying "visions burst on my sight." By the way, rapture here—it's very unlikely she was talking about end times, you know, the theory of the rapture. She was talking about wonder, amazement—like rapturous applause is over-the-top, extreme applause. Visions of rapture means visions of wonder and of glory. That was what she was dreaming of as she wrote this.
Angels descending, bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
When we're perfectly submitted to God, we can find these echoes of mercy, these whispers of love coming down to us time and time again. That causes us great delight.
Are you perfectly submitted to God today? Isn't that something to think of whenever you sing the song?
Verse 3: Perfect Obedience, All Is at Rest
Verse 3—again, it's perfect submission (I've also heard perfect obedience being sung here). Again, this is this Wesleyan understanding of a full salvation. We can live lives of obedience before God.
All is at rest.
When we are obeying God and submitting to Him, we don't have any fear. Perfect love casts out all fear.
I in my Saviour am happy and blest.
Isn't that an amazing song to sing or learn to sing? I wonder if you can sing it today—that because you're perfectly committed and submitted to God, you've found rest and happiness and blessing.
Watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love.
She's waiting for Jesus to return, watching, waiting, as He tells us to, looking above, keeping our minds fixed on the things that are above. In the meantime, we're so full of Him, filled with His goodness and lost in His love. This great, rapturous love that she has for Jesus shines through. What an incredible set of words to sing.
The Refrain: This Is My Story
Then, of course, there's the refrain, the chorus, that says:
This is my story, this is my song, praising my Saviour all the day long.
It's an absolutely beautiful thing to be singing. I wonder if that's true of you. If you can say that: I am praising my Saviour all the day long. This is my story; this is how I'm defined. If people want to ask who am I—what was Luke all about?—he was somebody who's singing God's praises all day long. May it be that that's what is said of us. That's obviously what was true of her—that all day long she's singing God's praises. Her witness for Him was so strong.
Conclusion
Do you have this blessed assurance that you are His? If so, your life will be defined by your submission to Him, your delight that comes from it, and your worship that flows out of it. What a great set of words—one of the classics, truly.
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References
Hebrews 10:22
