How Firm a Foundation
85

Text: Attributed to Robert Keen (ca. 1787)
Music: Attributed to J. Ellis (ca. 1889)
Tune name: FIDELITY

This hymn “becomes, indeed, a rod and a staff, to hold one in God’s ‘sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love,’” said George D. Pyper. “‘How Firm a Foundation’ should be memorized by every Latter- day Saint” (Stories of Latter- day Saint Hymns, 31).

This favorite hymn has been part of many Christian hymnals since its first publication in 1787 and part of Latter- day Saint hymn tradition since Emma Smith’s first hymnal in 1835. Its vigor and conviction are irresistible. In the words of this hymn we express our absolute faith in the saving and protecting power of our Savior.

The author is not known for certain, though Robert Keen seems the most likely candidate. The first printing, in 1787, identified the author only as “K___” and three men whose last names begin with “K” have been suggested as author: Kirkham, Keith, and Keen.

Emma Smith’s hymnal placed quotation marks around all verses except the first two. A careful look at the words of the hymn will show why this punctuation was logical: the hymn writer, in an unusual decision, wrote the last five verses as if they were spoken by Jesus himself to his faithful followers. The writer did not intend any presumption, because he was not really writing words in the Savior’s behalf. The purpose of these verses is to convey in the boldest and most direct way how thorough, how all-encompassing, and how specific we know his promises to be. These verses are really just a poetic summary of the reassurances we find throughout scripture. The 1985 hymnal preserves all seven verses.

This hymn plays a role in a well- known story from Mormon history. In the dark days of 1838 in Missouri, a small group of persecuted Saints had gathered at Haun’s Mill. The state militia attacked the defenseless group and killed seventeen Saints, including the husband and ten- year- old son of Amanda Smith. Another son, Alma, had been seriously wounded. Amanda Smith gathered with other bereaved women and children at the home of one of the Saints. “In our utter desolation,” she wrote later, “what could we women do but pray?”

One day they received a message from the militia: the sound of their praying was hateful, and they would have to cease praying or be killed. They dared not pray aloud, but Amanda Smith stole out into a cornfield. “I prayed aloud and most fervently,” she said.

“When I emerged from the corn a voice spoke to me. It was a voice as plain as I ever heard one. It was no silent, strong impression of the spirit, but a voice, repeating a verse of the Saints’ hymn:

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!

“From that moment I had no more fear. I felt that nothing could hurt me.” The attackers later shared some food with the Saints, and Amanda Smith remarked: “The Lord had kept his word. The soul who on Jesus had leaned for succor had not been forsaken even in this terrible hour of massacre” (Edward W. Tullidge, The Women of Mormondom [New York: Tullidge and Crandall, 1877], 129–32).

The last line of verse one was changed because of awkwardness: the words “you who unto Jesus” were changed to “who unto the Savior.”

We would give a great deal to know the composer of the fine hymn tune that accompanies these words in our Latter- day Saint hymnal. Under the tune name MY JESUS, I LOVE THEE, it appears in the Salvation Army hymnal and is attributed to “J. Ellis.” The tune’s use among Latter-day Saints appears to date back to the early years of the Church; however, in the Tune Book for the Primary Association (1880), Eliza R. Snow used another tune often paired with these words, the melody known familiarly as “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”