My Hope is Built on Nothing Less (ELW 597)
1 My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
no merit of my own I claim,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
Refrain:
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand.
2 When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in ev’ry high and stormy gale
my anchor holds within the veil. [Refrain]
3 His oath, his covenant, his blood
sustain me in the raging flood;
when all supports are washed away,
he then is all my hope and stay. [Refrain]
4 When he shall come with trumpet sound,
oh, may I then in him be found,
clothed in his righteousness alone,
redeemed to stand before the throne! [Refrain]
Devotion
On the day Edward Mote wrote the verses to the hymn “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less,” he was asked by a parishioner to call on his dying wife. Brother King could not find his hymnal, so Mote offered to sing a few lines of what he had written that were in his pocket. It was so uplifting, the woman asked for a copy, so he went home, wrote the last two verses and brought back the completed hymn.
In the face of challenge, adversity, or tragedy, the words of this hymn remind us that to stand firm in faith, on Christ the solid rock, will lead us to the greatest hope we can possibly attain. Like cypress trees deeply rooted into a riverbank during a flood (see verse 3), remaining steadfast in God’s word leads us through our trials with a hope that withstands all persecutions or wickedness and leads us to love.
Prayer
God of hope, in all our days, dark or light, stand firm for us and grant us to see that we may hold on to you for comfort, strength, and life. Amen.