Blessed Assurance

In this series, this is the first hymn of one of my absolute favorite hymn writers, Fanny Crosby. Born in 1820, Crosby has written many of the cherished hymns of the faith over the past 150 years. In many of them, you get a sense of what she lives by faith and anticipates seeing eventually with her own eyes when her faith is made sight. You can read her full story below.

I trust you will enjoy this great hymn as you read the lyrics. Be sure to check out the YouTube videos below as well where you can sing along.

Blessed Assurance Lyrics

The Theology

As the words in the refrain so powerfully say, “This is my story, this is my song…”

What better story can we have than the praise of our wonderful Savior who has saved us and continues to sanctify us?

This is a song of originally a blind woman who anxiously awaited meeting her Savior. How did she have perfect communion and perfect submission? These were based upon her blessed assurance that Jesus was her Savior.

Friends, I’m challenged in two ways. First, in my everyday living, am I walking with my Savior in perfect delight since I am assured that I am His? Second, as I live daily, is the praise of my Savior my story and song?

The Author and Composer of the Song

The author of Blessed Assurance, Fanny Crosby (sometimes spelled Fannie), was born March 24, 1820. She became blind at the age of six weeks from maltreatment of her eyes during a spell of sickness. At the age of fifteen she entered the New York Institution for the Blind, where she received a good education. She became a teacher in the institution in 1847.

She began to write Sunday-school hymns for William. B. Bradbury in 1864. As the years went on, she spent regular hours on certain days at the office of The Biglow & Main Co., the firm for which she did most of her writing, and for whom she has composed over four thousand hymns. Fanny loved her work, and was happy in it. The secret of this contentment dates from her first composition at the age of eight years. “It has been the motto of my life,” she says. It is:
“O what a happy soul am I!
Although I cannot see,
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be;”

She said that had it not been for her affliction she might not have so good an education, nor so great an influence, and certainly not so fine a memory. She knows a great many portions of the Bible by heart, and had committed to memory the first four books of the Old Testament, and also the four Gospels before she was ten years of age.[1]

Enjoy This Media

Some groups singing the song from YouTube:

Enjoy listening to Cliff Barrows lead one verse of this beautiful Christian hymn with the Gaither Homecoming group.

Classic congregational singing of all four verses.

 

This is one of the early copies of the song from Songs of Grace and Glory #55 from 1874 [5]:

I enjoyed singing this song in my childhood from Favorite Hymns of Praise #445 [6]:

 

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Link to Other Blogs in this Series