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The words of the song, “A Shelter in the Time of Storm were written by Vernon J. Charlesworth. He lived in England from 1839 to 1915. The second half of the chorus says, “Oh, Jesus is a Rock in a weary land, Another line in the hymn says, I can understand seeking shelter in a storm, but I don’t know what a weary land is, and I wouldn’t be able to hide inside of most of the rocks that I’ve seen in my life. Sometimes I have trouble with the images that I find in hymns, and I need to spend some time figuring them out. I did a little bit of reading to see if I could figure out this image. I found out that this hymn was a favorite hymn of fishermen on the north coast of England. They could be heard singing it as they approached the harbor in times of storm. Once again, I can understand the line about Jesus being a shelter in the time of storm, but I've been in boats before. When I’m in a boat, I usually look at rocks as something to avoid. My experience is that rocks tend to damage boats. If my boat were being tossed around by a storm, the idea that I soon may come upon a rock wouldn’t be very comforting. Then I learned that the hymn was inspired by Psalm 32:7 which reads, “You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.” (NRSV) The preceding verse of the Psalm was interesting as well. It reads, “Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them.” (NRSV) Then I remembered a place where I’ve spent some time in Two Harbors. There is a breakwater structure there. It is made from concrete and rocks. It protects the harbor from the waves of Lake Superior. The waves of Lake Superior crash against the breakwater with tremendous force, but on the other side of the barrier, the water is relatively calm. Boats in the main part of the lake are pounded by the waves, but those in the harbor are safe and secure. The rocks that make up that breakwater are truly a shelter in the time of storm. I also typed the words shelter and rock into an Internet search engine. Several archeological web sites appeared on the list. It turns out that rock shelters are important archeological sites. It seems that people have been using rocks for shelter for thousands of years. When archeologists find a rock shelter, they start to look for artifacts or bones on the ground, paintings on the walls, and they start to dig. I would describe a rock shelter as a shallow cave. It is an area where a hard layer of rock just above ground level remains, and a soft layer of rock at ground level has eroded away. Since people have used these sites for thousands of years, archeologists can make discoveries about those who previously inhabited the site based on the things they have left behind. I am glad that I looked into these things, because the song makes more sense to me now. I’m actually glad that the first line says, “Jesus is a rock in a weary land”, and that it doesn’t say, “Jesus is a cave”, or “Jesus is a rock shelter”, or “Jesus is a breakwater”. At the same time, I am glad that I have a better idea of what it might mean when the Psalmist or the songwriter says, “Jesus is a rock.” In case you are wondering about this song, here are the rest of the lyrics: A Shelter in the Time of Storm The Lord's our Rock, in Him we hide, A shade by day, defense by night, The raging storms may round us beat, O Rock divine, O Refuge dear, CHORUS: If you have Internet access and you want to hear the song, here is what you do. Type the title into a search engine followed by the word lyrics. Several web sites will appear. Some of the web sites will have a midi file playing in the background. You can listen to the tune and depending on where you are, you may even want to sing along. You can do this same thing with just about any song. Type in the song title, followed by the word lyrics, and you will most likely find the song on a web site. You are also very likely to find a site with a midi file, and possibly find a site with artwork surrounding the lyrics. Some of these sites are very nice, and they provide people with the ability to sing praises to God from where ever their computer happens to be. Thanks for listening to my rambling thoughts about this song. May God bless each and every one of you. Sincerely, Pastor Birk |