The story behind the hymn
Horatio Spafford was a Chicago lawyer, a friend of D. L. Moody, and a ruined man. The great fire of 1871 destroyed his real-estate investments; his four-year-old son died of scarlet fever. In November 1873 he sent his wife Anna and their four daughters ahead to England on the steamship Ville du Havre, planning to follow in days.
Mid-Atlantic, the ship was struck by an iron sailing vessel and sank in twelve minutes. Two hundred and twenty-six people drowned — among them Annie, Maggie, Bessie, and Tanetta Spafford. Anna, pulled unconscious from the water, cabled her husband two words: Saved alone.
Spafford took the next ship. As it passed near the place where his daughters died, he wrote the words that begin when peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll. The hymn refuses to choose between honesty and hope: sorrow is named as sea billows, sin is nailed to the cross and borne no more, and the last stanza looks past the waves entirely — the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend. Philip Bliss set it to music and named the tune Ville du Havre, after the ship.
The lyrics
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,When sorrows like sea billows roll;Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,It is well, it is well with my soul.
Refrain
It is well with my soul,It is well, it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,Let this blest assurance control,That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin — oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! —My sin, not in part but the whole,Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,Even so, it is well with my soul.
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The Scripture behind it
For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees.
Peace like a river — the hymn's opening image is Isaiah's.
Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
Sin nailed to the cross — the third stanza is this verse set to music.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
The last stanza's horizon: the trump shall resound.