In Heavenly Love Abiding

Heather Allington

Heather writes for Sunday Song Book on behalf of the The Salvation Army Oshawa. As a lifelong member of the Army, she has loved these familiar - and some less familiar - songs for many years, and enjoys researching and writing about their origins. She is a wife, mother, grandmother and retired elementary school teacher who likes trying her hand at watercolour painting and poetry writing.

In heavenly love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear;
And safe is such confiding,
For nothing changes here.
The storm may roar without me;
My heart may low be laid;
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed?

Wherever He may guide me,
No want shall turn me back;
My Shepherd is beside me,
And nothing can I lack.
His wisdom ever waketh;
His sight is never dim;
He knows the way He taketh,
And I will walk with Him.

Green pastures are before me,
Which yet I have not seen;
Bright skies will soon be o’er me,
Where the dark clouds have been.
My hope I cannot measure;
My path to life is free;
My Saviour has my treasure,
And He will walk with me.

Such reassuring thoughts! We can abide in God’s love! As Jennifer Schult has said, abide can indicate one should “settle in and get comfortable”. There is such hope for the future, too, expressed in the third verse of this song.

one should “settle in and get comfortable”. There is such hope for the future Share on X

Anna Waring wrote these words back in 1850. She was born in 1823 into a Quaker family in Wales, but as a teen joined the Church of England. She was a lifelong student of the Hebrew language, and read the Psalms daily in their original text. Anna had a special concern for people in prison, and devoted herself to ministering to them. In this connection, she worked for causes such as the “Discharged Prisoners’ Aid Society”.

In 1850, Anna published a small volume of nineteen hymns, including this one. She titled it Safety in God . It can be sung to a tune by Felix Mendelssohn, but in many churches today, including the Salvation Army, we usually use the tune “Penlan”, composed also by a Welshman, David Jenkins. Jenkins was a noted composer and a professor in the Music Department of the University of Wales at Aberystwyth.