Day by Day

Day by day and with each passing moment,

Strength I find to meet my trials here;

Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,

I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.

He whose heart is kind beyond all measure

Gives unto each day what He deems best-

Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,

Mingling toil with peace and rest.

Every day the Lord Himself is near me

With a special mercy for each hour;

All my cares He fain would bear, and cheer me,

He whose name is Counsellor and Power.

The protection of His child and treasure

Is a charge that on Himself He laid;

“As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure,”

This the pledge to me He made.

Help me then in every tribulation

So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,

That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation

Offered me within Thy holy word.

Help me Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,

E’er to take, as from a father’s hand,

One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,

‘Till I reach the promised land.

I have always loved this hymn for a nearly inexplicable reason. Somehow there have always seemed to be lines between the lines; whenever I sang or read this hymn, I was struck with this sense of great faith in the midst of great tragedy. It is not a hymn that I can sing or ponder without being deeply moved, near to tears - and I never really knew precisely why, but to me the writer speaks from a position not of simple, easy knowledge of the promises of God, but of God's faithfulness despite pain and suffering.

So I looked it up.

The hymn was written by Lina Sandell, a Swedish woman who has been likened to Fanny Crosby in that she wrote many great hymns in her lifetime. When she was twenty-six years old, she was with her father on a ship to the city of Gothenburg, Sweden, travelling across Lake Vattern. The ship gave a sudden lurch and her father, a devout minister, was thrown overboard.

He drowned before Lina's helpless eyes.

This hymn was written after that tragic event. Lina's faith in God's sovereign help and unchangeable promises grew and flourished in spite of it. In this hymn she shows a resolute hope, clinging to the promises of God that, as she says, He has laid on Himself. God protects His children from now into eternity. We may go through trying times and even death, but we can trust our Father's pledge. We can cast our cares upon the One Who bears them all.