Sunday morning brings another installment in my series, Then Sings my Soul: The Hymns of My Youth. This week it’s a hymn of assurance, of theological confession… and it reflects a series of “unknowns.” Our modern world taught us to be uncomfortable with unknowns, to seek an explanation for everything… something rational. Even theology succumbed to the drive to explain everything. But not everything has an explanation, as this hymn acknowledges. Written by Daniel W. Whittle (1840-1901), “I Know Whom I Have Believed” is a hymn of hope, returning in each refrain to the words of Paul in 2 TImothy 1:12 (KJV). For all the things we don’t know, we still know the parts that matter most.
I Know Whom I Have Believed
I know not why God’s wondrous grace
To me He hath made known,
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
Redeemed me for His own.But I know Whom I have believèd,
And am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
Unto Him against that day.I know not how this saving faith
To me He did impart,
Nor how believing in His Word
Wrought peace within my heart.Refrain
I know not how the Spirit moves,
Convincing us of sin,
Revealing Jesus through the Word,
Creating faith in Him.Refrain
I know not what of good or ill
May be reserved for me,
Of weary ways or golden days,
Before His face I see.Refrain
I know not when my Lord may come,
At night or noonday fair,
Nor if I walk the vale with Him,
Or meet Him in the air.Refrain
Adore the title of your blog!
Totally agree that there is so much we just don’t understand about God. I love how this hymn both affirms what the writer does know as it simultaneously proclaims that there is much that’s not understood.
It’s a great myth of this era that life is all about the quantifiable and physically attainable.