Zion Stands with Hills Surrounded
43

Text: Thomas Kelly (1769–1854)
Music: A. C. Smyth (1840–1909; LDS)
Tune name: SAFETY

“They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.

“ . . . So the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever” (Psalm 125:1–2).

Latter- day Saints love this hymn and its promise of safety and security in “Zion, kept by power divine.”

The scriptures frequently speak of “mount Zion,” equating mountains with refuge and protection; the word of the Lord will go forth from the mountaintops, and nations will look toward an ensign unfurled on Zion’s hill. Only when we remember how common such references are throughout the scriptures, especially as part of Old Testament prophecies, can we understand how a man who probably never heard of the Church during his lifetime could have written a hymn text so in tune with Latter- day Saint feelings.

George D. Pyper remarked: “What the author had in mind when he wrote his impressive lines is said to have been ‘the safety of the church’ [this was the hymn’s original title], but he must have foreseen a condition that did not exist until seventy- seven years after he penned the lines, when the Saints established Zion, ‘with hills surrounded.’ He might have had in mind the City of David . . . , Jerusalem . . . , the Tribe of Judah . . . , or he might have envisioned the Latter- day ‘Zion, the Pure in Heart,’ spoken of in modern revelation (Doctrine and Covenants 97:19–21). In any case it was an inspired prophecy; for no Latter- day Saint could have more perfectly described the belief of the Mormon people than did Thomas Kelly back in the eighteenth century” (Stories of Latter- day Saint Hymns, 173, 175).

Latter- day Saint composer A. C. Smyth also wrote the music for “Come, Thou Glorious Day of Promise” (no. 50) and “Come Along, Come Along” (no. 244). He was the arranger/adapter of the music for “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer” (no. 26). Words and music of “Zion Stands with Hills Surrounded” appeared together in A Collection of Hymns and Anthems Set to Music by Home Composers (1883).