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Edward Mote was born in 1797 to parents who were pub owners and reportedly hostile to religion. As a boy, he was apprenticed to a cabinetmaker and later became a skilled cabinetmaker in his own right, with a successful business of his own. When he was 15, he found faith, listening to the preaching of John Hyatt at the Tottenham Court Road Chapel in London. Even though Mote's business took much of his time, he always found time to worship God. He loved to write hymns, and one day on the way to work, he wrote down a verse, followed by three more verses by the end of the day.
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand:
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
Did you know that the writer of this now familiar hymn was a master carpenter (and later, at age 55, became a Baptist preacher)? Now maybe that one line makes more sense: I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. He's saying even the most sturdy creation of man can't be trusted to support us, but we can lean on Christ, the solid rock! Look at the next two verses:
When darkness seems to hide his face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand:
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
His oath, his covenant, his blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand:
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
Now we're singing about high and stormy gales... and whelming floods... you've heard of ships destroyed by hurricanes... and homes destroyed by floods... these are vivid metaphors for the storms of life we will all weather. Who is our solid rock? Who can we cling to? Who will save us? Christ Jesus, the Son of God! Now, since we are hearing more about the book of Revelation this Sunday, we had to include the final verse:
When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found,
Dressed in his righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand:
All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand.
All this to say, he was with us at our beginning, through good and bad, through every high and stormy gale, and he will be with us at the end to present us faultless before the throne of God. ALL other ground is sinking sand.
I pray that you will think of these things in a new light as you sing this hymn in worship with us this Sunday, wherever you may be!
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