God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.

-Psalm 46:1

Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee;
let the water and the blood,
from thy wounded side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure;
save from wrath and make me pure.

Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law’s demands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Savior, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath,
when mine eyes shall close in death,
when I soar to worlds unknown,
see thee on thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee.

“Rock of Ages” is a popular Christian hymn written by the Reformed Anglican minister Augustus Toplady, an Anglican cleric and hymn writer. He was a major Calvinist opponent of John Wesley (founder of the Methodist Church). Toplady is best remembered as the author of the “Rock of Ages.”

“Rock of Ages” has always been a popular hymn, and it’s one of my favorites. Through the song, Toplady speaks of how God is our refuge and strength. As Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.” God will be with us in our time of need. He may not always present Himself in the way we want, but it is in the way He deems we need the most. God answers all of our prayers, but sometimes that answer may be “no.” However, no matter what, we can draw strength from our belief in God.

There is a popular, but probably apocryphal, story about the origin of this hymn text that started 122 years after publication of the hymn text by a letter published in the Times of London on June 3, 1898 from Dean Lefroy of Norwich, together with one from Sir W. H. Wills on the same matter. The burden of Lefroy’s correspondence is based on a claim made by Sir W. H. Wills regarding the origin of this hymn. Wills’ claim asserted that Toplady drew his inspiration from an incident in the gorge of Burrington Combe in the Mendip Hills in England. Toplady, then a curate (assistant Church of England preacher) in the nearby village of Blagdon, was travelling along the gorge when he was caught in a storm. Finding shelter in a gap in the gorge, he was struck by the title and scribbled down the initial lyrics.

According to E. J. Fasham, a more likely inspiration for the text is a 1673 sermon by Daniel Brevint (who had been the Dean of Durham Cathedral). This sermon had been partially quoted in the preface to Charles Wesley’s Hymns of the Lord’s Supper (1745), which was in common use amongst a number of ministers of the period. The similarity between the passages from Brevint’s sermon and the hymn suggests this was the starting point for Toplady’s text. Regardless of the origins of the hymn, we can still draw great strength and inspiration from it.

The text of this hymn from Toplady’s July 1776 ‘alt’ version has been substantially edited since its publication by different denominations over the years creating a number of versions of the hymn text used by different churches around the world. An example of an edit made to Toplady’s text is: “When my eyes shall close in death” was originally written as “When my eye-strings break in death”. Notwithstanding the bitter pamphlet war between Augustus Toplady and John Wesley over the correctness of Calvinist (souls are predestined for heaven or hell) versus Arminian (souls are saved through God’s grace) theology, there has been speculation by some, that although Toplady was a Calvinist, the edited version of the words, “Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath, and make me pure,” suggest he agreed with the teachings of the Methodist preacher under whom he received his religious conversion, and of his contemporary, John Wesley, who taught the “double cure”, in which a sinner is saved by the atonement of Jesus, and cleansed from sin by being filled with the Holy Spirit.