Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;

Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

We sang this old hymn Sunday.

It was so wonderful to sing the old words.  I love contemporary worship songs as well, but it warms my heart to sing a song written in 1887 and feel the fellowship of trusting God with Believers who lived over a hundred years before me.  It was written by Anthony J. Showalter and Elisha Hoffman as they reflected on the verse Deut. 33:27: "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms."

What a fellowship, what a joy divine,

Leaning on the everlasting arms;

What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,

Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning seems to me to be the opposite of striving.  Of doing.  Of toiling.  Of laboring.  Of fighting. Of contending.  Of working.

Leaning is a picture of resting.  Of surrendering.  Of waiting.  Of reclining.  Of trusting.

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;

Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

What have I to dread, what have I to fear,

Leaning on the everlasting arms;

I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,

Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Am I dreading something?

Am I fearing anything?

Am I aware of the closeness of my Savior?

He is close enough for me to lean.  To lean on Him.  To lean on His everlasting arms.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, 

 And do not lean on your own understanding.

Prov 3:5

Should I lean on myself? On my own understanding?


Not if I am trusting.  Trusting in the Lord with my whole heart is the only way I will have the faith to lean on Him and wait patiently for Him to move as He so chooses.


So I will choose to lean.

Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.