Center For Church Music, Songs & Hymns

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Fierce winds blow, lightning flashes, and thunder cracks so loudly it shakes your home. That kind of storm makes us quake with fear and wonder how we’ll ever survive. And that’s the kind of storm we feel each time another terrorist strikes, or a job is lost, or a loved one dies.

In the midst of such storms, our hearts can find hope in the words of "O God Our Help in Ages Past." As the hymn writer states, God is "our shelter from the stormy blast." No matter what tragedy st...

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Fierce winds blow, lightning flashes, and thunder cracks so loudly it shakes your home. That kind of storm makes us quake with fear and wonder how we’ll ever survive. And that’s the kind of storm we feel each time another terrorist strikes, or a job is lost, or a loved one dies.

In the midst of such storms, our hearts can find hope in the words of "O God Our Help in Ages Past." As the hymn writer states, God is "our shelter from the stormy blast." No matter what tragedy strikes, God can protect us.

But how can we be so sure that God is there in the storm? The hymn answers that question in these words, "from everlasting you are God, to endless years the same." God doesn’t change. He guided the Israelites safely to the Promised Land. He raised Jesus from the dead. And when we look at our own past, we’ll always notice the same thing: God was there to see us through the storms. Knowing that, we can live with hope that he’ll protect us in the present too.

What storms shake you today? Maybe you feel like an emotional wreck. Maybe you’re fighting tough spiritual battles. Maybe your family circumstances have spiraled out of control. But no matter what "stormy blast" may be swirling around you, hold on to the promise of this hymn. Let the truth of Psalm 90 be your strength for you just as it was for Isaac Watts so long ago. You can be confident that God will see you through.

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Isaac Watts wrote "Our God, Our Help in Ages Past" as a paraphrase of Psalm 90. His desire to write the hymn was born, in part, out of his dissatisfaction with the church music of his day. At 20 years of age, he complained that the metrical psalms they had to sing at Above Bar Chapel in Southampton were grim and ponderous. But to sing anything other than the actual words of Scripture was said to insult to God.

Watts’ father heard Isaac’s complaining and challenged him to ...

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Isaac Watts wrote "Our God, Our Help in Ages Past" as a paraphrase of Psalm 90. His desire to write the hymn was born, in part, out of his dissatisfaction with the church music of his day. At 20 years of age, he complained that the metrical psalms they had to sing at Above Bar Chapel in Southampton were grim and ponderous. But to sing anything other than the actual words of Scripture was said to insult to God.

Watts’ father heard Isaac’s complaining and challenged him to "write something better for us to sing." In 1719, he published an important hymnal titled The Psalms of David in the Language of the New Testament. In it he paraphrased the entire Psalter with the exception of twelve Psalms he felt were unsuited for usage.

At this time in England, religious freedom was severely limited and Watts’ father was jailed twice for his religious views. Isaac himself was considered a radical churchman, since he wrote many "hymns of human composure” songs that did not directly quote Bible passages.

In such uncertain times, Watts looked to Psalm 90 for comfort and wrote more than a paraphrase of its heartening words. His hymn actually gave a grand commentary on the subject of time and how God stands above human time.

Originally, "Our God, Our Help in Ages Past" contained nine verses. Today most hymnals use only verses 1, 2, 3, 5, and 9. In 1738, John Wesley changed the first line from "Our God" to "O God." Some feel that the change makes it easier to sing and also calls the vocative case which causes the singer to expect the "Thy" of the second stanza.

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