Musings and Memories
By Doug Dezotell
The First Little Pig built his house out of straw on a sandy beach.
The Second Little Pig built his house out of sticks on a dirt covered slope.
The Third Little Pig built his house out of bricks and mortar on a solid foundation.
The along came the Big Bad Wolf. Remember him?
He sat hidden up on a hill top watching the activities of the Three Little Pigs down below.
The more he watched them the hungrier he got.
Then he came down to the house built from straw and threatened the First Little Pig who was cowering inside.
The Wolf huffed and puffed and blew the house down. The First Little Pig scurried away, squealing as he ran to the house built from sticks and he sought refuge with the Second Little Pig.
But, then the Big Bad Wolf came along, hungrier by the minute, and he huffed and he puffed and he blew down the house built of sticks. Those two Little Pigs climbed out of the rubble and ran off to the Brick House on the Firm Foundation.
The Third Little Pig let his squealing friends in and he locked the door behind them.
The Big Bad Wolf was right on their curly little tails, but found himself locked out of the Brick House.
So the Wolf huffed and puffed and blew…and nothing happened…so he tried again and again and again. The Big Bad Wolf, hungry and winded, and realizing defeat, wandered back into the hills and left the Three Little Pigs safe in the Brick House Built on that Firm Foundation.
A Firm Foundation.
Jesus sat on a hilltop and concluded His famous “Sermon on the Mount” with these words: “Therefore, anyone who listens to my teaching and does what I say is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.
“But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” (Matthew 7:24-27, NLT)
A favorite hymn of mine, and of so many other believers, is “How Firm A Foundation.” It was first published in London, England in 1787 by John Rippon, the editor of a new hymnbook.
The name of the author of this beloved hymn is a mystery. In the hymnbook, it was attributed only to “K—.”
No matter who the hymnwriter was, for well over 230 years this precious hymn, “How Firm a Foundation,” has brought peace, hope and encouragement to millions of believers around the world.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
who unto the Savior for refuge have fled?
This beautiful hymn was a favorite of President Andrew Jackson’s family and they sang it at his bedside as he laid dying.
It was also sung at the funerals of both General Robert E. Lee and President Theodore Roosevelt.
“When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
for I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.”
There’s an interesting story of how this hymn brought comfort to, and even unified an entire corps of the United States Army in 1898 during the Spanish-American war. It was just several decades after the end of the US Civil War, and there was still a lot of distrust and bad feelings between soldiers from the North and the South.
The Lieutenant-Colonel Curtis Guild, Jr. told this story in “The Sunday-School Times” in 1901.
“On Christmas Eve of 1898 I sat before my tent in the balmy tropical night [near Havana, Cuba] chatting with a fellow-officer of Christmas and home.
“Suddenly from the camp of the Forty-ninth Iowa rang a sentinel’s call, “Number ten; twelve o’clock, and all’s well!”
“It was Christmas morning. Scarcely had the cry of the sentinel died away, when from the bandsmen’s tents of that same regiment there rose the music of an old, familiar hymn, and one clear baritone voice led the chorus that quickly ran along those moonlit fields: ‘How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord!’
“Another voice joined in, and another, and another, and in a moment the whole regiment was singing, and then the Sixth Missouri joined in, with the Fourth Virginia, and all the rest, till there, on the long ridges above the great city whence Spanish tyranny once went forth to enslave the New World, a whole American army corps was singing –
“Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed;
For I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.
“The Northern soldier knew the hymn as one he had learned beside his mother’s knee. To the Southern soldier it was that and something more; it was the favorite hymn of their hero, General Robert E. Lee, and was sung at that great commander’s funeral.
“Protestant and Catholic, North and South were singing together on Christmas day in the morning – now that’s an American army!”
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
who unto the Savior for refuge have fled?
In every condition, in sickness, in health,
in poverty’s vale, or abounding in wealth,
at home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
as days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.
“Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed,
for I am thy God and will still give thee aid.
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.”
“When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
for I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.”
“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply.
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.”
“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!”
We have just entered a new year…2024….and if we will follow the advice of the Apostle James, and “be doers of the Word, and not hearers only,” God will be with with us through the days ahead, whether good or bad, He will be with us.
It is my hope and my prayer that you will build your life on that wonderful Firm Foundation of the Word of God.
Doug Dezotell serves as the pastor of Cannon UMC in Shelbyville, and he’s a columnist for the Bedford County Post. Doug can be contacted by phone at 931-607-5191 or by email at dougmdezotell@gmail.com. Thank you for reading the Bedford County Post.
