March 15
MORE SECURE IS NO ONE EVER
Lina Sandell Berg, 1832–1903
My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge. (Psalm 62:7)
A sincere love for God and a heart filled with gratitude following a miraculous healing experience prompted the tender lines of this hymn, set to a child-like Swedish folk melody.
Lina Sandell was the daughter of a Lutheran pastor in Smöland, Sweden. Since early childhood she had been confined to bed with a paralysis that doctors considered hopeless. One Sunday morning, while her parents were at church, Lina began reading her Bible and praying. She was suddenly healed. With a thankful heart, Lina began writing verses that expressed her feelings for God. As a result, at the age of 16 she published her first book of meditations and poems. One of her earliest hymn texts during this time was “Tryggare Kan Ingen Vara” or “More Secure Is No One Ever.”
In the following years Lina had experiences that must have tested her faith, as expressed in a stanza of this hymn—“What He takes or what He gives us … ” When she was 26, Lina accompanied her father on a trip across Lake Vattern. When the ship lurched suddenly, Pastor Sandell was thrown overboard and drowned as his devoted daughter stood helplessly by. Then after her marriage to C. O. Berg, Lina met tragedy once more with the death of their first son at birth.
Lina’s sweet trusting faith in her Lord did not seem shaken by the sorrows in her life. Instead, more songs than ever began to flow from her broken heart. In all, she wrote more than 650 hymns before her death in 1903. These heart-warming gospel songs had much influence on the powerful revival surge that swept the Scandinavian countries during the mid-19th century. And still today these words minister to our lives:
More secure is no one ever than the loved ones of the Savior—not yon star on high abiding, nor the bird in home-nest hiding.
Neither life nor death can ever from the Lord His children sever, for His love and deep compassion comforts them in tribulation.
Little flock to joy then yield thee! Jacob’s God will ever shield thee; rest secure with this Defender—At His will all foes surrender.
What He takes or what He gives us shows the Father’s love so precious; we may trust His purpose wholly—’Tis His children’s welfare solely.
For Today: Matthew 18:14; 2 Thessalonians 3:3; 1 Peter 5:10, 11
Rest securely in the love and protection of your heavenly Father—much like a child in the arms of a parent. Allow this hymn to help you realize that—
Milo 