Blessed Assurance- Bedroom Demo #256 (Patreon)

Blessed Assurance

words: Fanny Crosby; music: Phoebe Knapp

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!

Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!

Heir of salvation, purchase of God

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Savior all the day long

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Savior all the day long

Perfect submission, perfect delight,

Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;

Angels descending, bring from above

Echoes of mercy, whispers of love

chorus

Perfect submission, all is at rest

I in my Savior am happy and blessed

Watching and waiting, looking above

Filled with His goodness, lost in His love

chorus

guitar and vocal: T.S. Taylor

The line in the song “Blessed Assurance” which I find particularly poignant is the one that reads “Visions of rapture now burst on my sight”; I say “poignant” because Fanny Crosby, the author of the hymn’s lyrics was, in fact, blind.

Here’s the story of how the song came to be: One day in the year 1863, Fanny was visiting her good friend Phoebe Knapp. Aside from having really cool victorian names (does anybody name their baby girl ‘Fanny’ any more?), musically speaking both were talented in their own right; Phoebe could play a mean organ and Fanny had a way with words. As it happens, the Knapp family were having a large pipe organ installed in their home that very week, and since the guy responsible for installing the thing was taking his sweet time about it, Phoebe had no choice but to use the family piano to lay the new melody she had written on her friend Fanny. Pointing to a near by chair, Phoebe said to her friend “Take a load off, Fanny.” Actually I made that last part up. Anyway, after Mrs. Knapp finished playing the number on her piano, she says to her friend “What do you think the song says?” Now instead of being a weisenheimer and responding “Why, it don’t say nothin’. There ain’t no words to it!”, Fanny replies (this is absolutely true) “Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine”, and just like that, a future beloved hymn is given birth.

Today, times being what they are, (confusing, disheartening, perilous, etc.), we could all use some “blessed assurance” right about now, so don’t hesitate to sing along with Phoebe’s melody and Fanny’s words. Expressing confidence in God, God’s response to prayer, and the hope of eternal salvation, (in other words, expressing “blessed assurance”) just might give your weary spirit a needed lift.

“For me to live is Christ, to die is gain”-Philippians 1:21