Reflections
A raucous election season is thankfully behind us and Thanksgiving is around the corner. Sadly, peoples across the planet war on. A photograph recently posted by one of our singers on his Facebook feed and the death of a dear friend's father, a Navy veteran, prompted reflection on another November holiday - Veteran's Day - and a tune, often referred to as the Navy hymn. Do you know how this lovely tune came to be? Click here.
The words to the hymn, "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" are traditionally associated with seafarers, particularly in the maritime armed services. Written in 1860, the hymn's author, William Whiting, was an Anglican churchman from Winchester, Great Britain, who had grown up and lived most of his youth near the ocean on the coasts of England. When Whiting was 35, he experienced a violent storm at sea and believed that his life was spared by God. Some years later, when he was headmaster of the Winchester College Choristers' School, he was approached by a student about to travel to the United States. The student confided his overwhelming fear of the ocean voyage to come. Whiting shared his experience with his own voyage and his firm belief that God would quiet the power and fury of the seas. It is said that Whiting was inspired by the dangers of the sea described in Psalm 107.
The first verse refers to God the Father's forbidding the waters to flood the earth as described in Psalm 104. The second verse refers to Jesus' miracles of stilling a storm and walking on the waters of the Sea of Galilee. The third verse references the Holy Spirit's role in the creation of the earth in the Book of Genesis, while the final verse is a reference to Psalm 107.
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walkedst on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe'er they go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.
John B. Dykes, an Anglican clergyman, composed the tune "Melita" to accompany the hymn text in 1861. Dykes was a well-known composer of nearly three hundred hymn tunes, many of which are still in use today. "Melita" is an archaic term for Malta, an ancient seafaring nation which had been a colony of the British Empire. It was the site of a shipwreck, mentioned in Acts of the Apostles (chapters 27-28), involving the Apostle Paul.
"Eternal Father Strong to Save" endures today as a popular service hymn in churches all over the world. Since it was adopted by the Royal Navy and the United States Navy in the late 19th century variations of it are still in use by many branches of the armed services in the United Kingdom and the United States.
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