Speaker 1 0:01

In silence and in meditation on the eternal truths, I hear the voice of God which excites our hearts to greater love. Cs Lewis, this is the Bright Forever, where each week we rediscover the power and richness found in some of the greatest hymns of the faith. My name is Andy Peavyhouse and I am your host on this, our incredible journey through hymnody. I'm excited to be back with you all this week as we conclude the fantastic discussion on the beautiful and moving hymn Be Still my Soul. My dad, steve Peavyhouse, has wanted to talk about this hymn for a while now, and boy did we ever talk about it. We talked so much that we had to split this into two parts. It was so hard to cut down certain things that I just left it all in. But even with this two-part episode and the cutting that we did actually keep, I still have another 20 to 30 minutes of other stuff that we just kind of went off onto rabbit trails and started talking about other things. But it was such a good time and is such an amazing hymn and it is always fun to take time to talk to my dad about these amazing songs. He has such amazing insights and I just love getting to hear his mind. He really does. My mom has said it for years and years that he has the mind of Christ, and he would say, no, he doesn't. And you're right, he's not perfect by any shape of the imagination, but he really does have a mind that sees Jesus in some amazing places that you don't think to look or you don't think about. And getting to sit down and getting to talk to him is just amazing. I absolutely love it. Every single time I get to sit down and talk through these hymns with him is a special time. Well, with that, I loved getting to share a story last week, one from Janice but sadly no one sent in a story this week and I'm kind of sad about that. So I don't have a story to share with you, but I do want to continue the challenge to all of you out there. Tell me your story of Jesus. What is something that he's done for you, what is something that he's helped you triumph over or challenged you to work through? You can send it via email to podcast at the bright forevercom through our contact form on our website, or by recording your story by clicking the radio microphone at the bottom right of our website. That's the bright forevercom.

Speaker 1 3:22

Well, we have a lot to talk through today as we conclude our discussion of this amazing hymn. Be Still my Soul. It is an absolutely captivating song with words by Katerina von Schlegel and music perfectly set to it by part of Jan Sibelius'. Peace Finlandia.

Speaker 1 3:43

Like I've said before, I usually would put a segment in about history and song and go through each verse, but we cover so much of that and so much of other subjects in this and I wanted to hear everything that we talked about that. I didn't include it on this part one and part two but we do talk about it. So if you haven't heard some of part one, go ahead and listen to part one and then check out part two. Make sure to check both of them out. And, of course, you can always go on and click and say this is my favorite one and put five stars and all that and tell us how much you love the podcast. But let's jump right into the conversation and let you hear the conclusion of our discussion. As always, before we get started, don't forget to click subscribe and follow us at the Bright Forever so that you never miss an episode. And with that, here we go. Here we go. Is there anywhere in the song where it's like this?

Speaker 3 5:00

really speaks to me, or this particular word, or this particular phrase, or this is something. This is one of the reasons why I love this song, I think. Well, I went to a funeral today and this is not a young person. People who are friends of ours are not young people for the most part. They're up there where we are, or something a little older than we are. But I went to this funeral.

Speaker 3 5:19

Now understand about this funeral. This is a person whose life was sunk deeply into God, into his word, absolutely loved Jesus and was loved by Jesus, and you can just tell it in the way she acted and the way she responded to people. But for the family it was still a difficult time, even knowing, even knowing that she was with her Lord and being happy about that. You know that they are going to miss her and so there were some difficult things.

Speaker 3 5:52

Well, that third stanza Be still my soul. When dearest friends depart and all is darkened in the veil of tears, then shall you better know his love, his heart. I mean you'll better know his love, his heart. I mean you'll better know his love, his heart. Who comes to soothe your sorrow and your fears? Be still my soul. Your Jesus can repay from his own fullness all he takes away. That's just you know, and I'm. You know I'm not anticipating, you know being gone tomorrow, but my father-in-law used to say at all of our birthdays and hope you have as many in front of you as you had behind you. Well, I'm long past the possibility of having as many in front of me as I've had behind me, hey you don't know, there's some medical advances out there.

Speaker 1 6:49

You could live to be 150-something.

Speaker 3 6:53

Yeah, yeah, me and Seth and Methuselah. I'm not anticipating that that's going to be happening anytime soon Okay. But the point is it's still something that I know is there. I know it's coming, but at the same time I'm assuming that there will be people around me after I'm gone that may feel some sorrow and some tears that I'm gone, maybe not, I don't know. You never can tell about these things.

Speaker 1 7:25

But I'm assuming— I'm sure there'll be a few, yeah.

Speaker 3 7:28

I'm seeing—but to know that that Jesus says, out of his fullness, he's saying to us out of my fullness, I will repay everything you lost. It's sort of like talking about the locust, that the Lord will pay back to you everything the locusts have taken all the years. The locusts have wasted and that's what's happened. Whatever you do, whatever you lose, he more than gives it to you, he more than pays it back.

Speaker 1 8:06

I like the line. Then shall you better know his love, his heart, who comes to soothe your sorrow and your fears? It reminds me of why Jesus came. Be still my soul when darkest when darkest, when dearest friends depart and all is darkened in the veil of tears. Jesus entered our world in the darkness of our world, in the darkness of our sin, when things just felt like they couldn't get any worse. God stepped into time and he came so that we could know his love and know his heart, amen, and that he could soothe our sorrows and our fears. That's why Jesus comes.

Speaker 3 8:51

That's why he came into this world. But let me tell you a little bit, because this may give you a perspective on why this song means so much to me. He stepped into my life in a really unique way. Well, I won't say it's necessarily unique. People may have had similar kinds of experiences. But I actually made a profession of faith. I don't think I had any clue what I was doing. I think I went up there because my cousin Dickie was going forward and.

Speaker 3 9:17

I did too, but I went through in my later high school and in my college years I had panic attacks. I was subject to panic attacks and they were pretty terrifying, very scary, and the whole idea of being still just calming yourself down was something that was amazing to me. To me and this is one of those songs that I can still remember, loving it in my later high school, my college years, and, believe me, during that time I was not, you know, gung-ho. I want to be the biggest, best Christian I can possibly be. I was not there, but even though I was wandering there, but even though I was wandering, sometimes in the wilderness, he was still speaking to me and he was seeking to quiet my soul, because when your soul is quiet, you already can hear him. When your soul is quiet, then he can speak and you can listen in ways that you can't when you've got so much chatter going on.

Speaker 3 10:32

I mean, right now we have a world of chatter because there is. If you don't want to, you don't have to have a single thought in your head. You can pump stuff in from your phone, from your television, from anywhere, anything in the world. You can just keep your mind going all the time world. You can just keep your mind going all the time.

Speaker 3 10:51

But when you are able to be still, then you can develop an eagerness to hear what he has to say to you. And if you don't develop that eagerness, if you don't even want to hear what he has to say to you, then there really isn't a lot that you can do to one mature as a believer or to really learn how to be still and how to know that he's God, know that he's in control. If you know that God's for you, then you can behave like God's for you and things that would otherwise crush or scare or rile you and make you angry they don't have to Now. It doesn't mean that we're perfect and we're going to go ahead and have nice responses all the time. But when we're able to back off and be still, then all of a sudden all the stuff out there in life, all the chatter that's going on, doesn't really affect you the way it could and would if you didn't have an understanding. It didn't have that perspective on life that you can be still because he is for you always and forever.

Speaker 1 12:14

Here's my question with this how do you be still? Because I keep going back. What's really interesting? I did not plan this at all, but I'm going through in each of my classes that I'm teaching juniors and sophomores and freshmen. We're talking about bits and pieces that all fit into what we're talking about right now. We're talking about art and entertainment right now because I'm going through this book called Understanding the Culture and we're going through.

Speaker 1 12:47

We've talked about technology and how technology and screen time has changed the way we think. We're now talking about art and entertainment. We talk about the value of human life, we talk about war, we talk about um, marriage and sexuality and things like that, um, and and we look at it from a Christian perspective, but we also look at it from, uh, from the ideas of Islam and secularism and New Ageism and things like that and this particular. We just started talking about entertainment and how we are just bombarded with stuff. You just kind of kind of like hinted at it too.

Speaker 1 13:34

If we don't want to be still, we don't have to, because we can be bombarded with music and tv and something on a screen or games or whatever. We don't have to sit still, we don't have to stop for anything. As a matter of fact, um, I want to say it's uh, huxley book, brave New World, oh yes, is all about the dystopian picture he paints. Is we're going to be so bombarded with entertainment and with things that amuse us that that's going to be what ends up destroying us? Is that nobody's going to want to actually open a book because we're just going to have to. We're going to be entertained by other things.

Speaker 3 14:17

I was about to interrupt you a minute ago and say our biggest problem is we don't want it. We don't want to be still, we don't want silence, we don't want serenity, we don't want those things. We want our minds so cluttered, so full of stuff, that we never have to think about what we're really like.

Speaker 1 14:36

Silence equals thinking what the world is like.

Speaker 3 14:40

What God really wants to be and do in our lives and the fact that we are hopelessly and completely fallen and depraved. We don't want to think about that People talk about. We don't think about death. They don't want to think about this. No, we don't want to think about anything. But you were asking how do you become that?

Speaker 1 15:07

Yeah. So how do you, when you're bombarded with all this, how do you take the time and be still Okay?

Speaker 3 15:13

here's it is a matter of spiritual discipline, and when I say discipline, I mean actual, truly. When you think of the spiritual disciplines, you know you think of prayer, bible study, worship. There are things that you do in your life service. There are things that you do in your life that are things that make you more like Jesus, that make your trek on to be with the Lord sort of open the path and make the paths more straight for you because you're engaging those disciplines. What we don't think very often about are some of these like, for instance, silence, solitude.

Speaker 1 16:01

When you say solitude maybe it's just me when you say solitude, the first thing that comes to my mind is Superman and his fortress of solitude. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one, maybe there's nobody out there going. That's what I was thinking too, but I'm sitting there going. When I think of solitude, I think I have to get away from everything, like I can't have solitude in my house. I can't do. And so when I start thinking of I need to have solitude, I'm like, oh, I don't have solitude in my house, I can't do. And so when I start thinking of I need to have solitude, I'm like, oh, I don't have time for that Cause I've got to go somewhere and get away from everything in order to have solitude.

Speaker 1 16:42

But it's not that, but that's. That's what comes to mind. When you say solitude, I'm thinking I need a fortress of solitude somewhere. I need a place where I can go and hide. I need to be in one of those sensory deprivation tanks where I just get. I don't have any influences from the outside world anywhere near me.

Speaker 3 17:04

Our problem is that we think just like you said. You think of solitude as being a long period of time. Well, it would be wonderful if you could have a long period of time, but it's really taking the time to have solitude if it's only breaks of solitude. I could either use my time fruitfully doing something that's going to nourish me spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally I mean I can do things like that or I can just sort of numb my brain. And when Von Schlegel was talking about being still, it didn't mean to be still and just listen to something to fill your mind up so you wouldn't have to think about your problems or difficulties or anything else. It means to be still and allow yourself to learn how to hear what God's saying to you, because he has lots to say to us. But I think our big problem is that we don't really want to hear what he has to say to us, because it's going to make us change. And I look back and I think to myself back in those days, 1700s, 1800s. Well, they didn't have all the technology we have now, because they could do that, they could sit there and they could be still, and they had it much easier and so on, because all they had to worry about was not dying, not starving to death, having a way of having shelter, not freezing all the things that we take for granted now. Those are the things that we take for granted now. Those are the things that sort of consumed them, but there was still. You needed to have those times of quietness.

Speaker 3 18:59

I remember I think Susanna was her name and I can't remember if it was Charles. I think it was John Wesley's wife. Susanna Wesley had 22 children and she used to regularly I don't think this would work for me or for my wife when you boys were young but she would take her apron and she would pull it over the top of her head. She was sitting in a rocking chair. She would pull her apron in front of her and she would pull it over the top of her head and her children knew to leave her alone because that was her quiet time. That was her with 22 children. I don't see that as a quiet time because there's got to be incredible noise going on around you, but that was her finding the time to be still, because she was able to shut out other things and know who he was, remind herself of what he meant in her life, and so I think that's you know, I don't think we need large chunks.

Speaker 3 19:59

Well, I take that back. It would be wonderful to have large chunks of time of silence and of solitude, but our problem is will we accept solitude and will we let God fill it with things he wants for us?

Speaker 1 20:36

we live in uncertain times. We live in a time when people do suffer and they are going through some hard times. How can this song minister to them?

Speaker 3 20:42

Well, I think first of all is recognize the times. I mean, if you see the times that are going on around you, what's happening, especially nowadays? I mean, right now we are looking. I'm taking a class, I'm actually leading a class at Bible Study Fellowship. I'm one of many group leaders talking about the book of Revelation. We've been in there this whole year and, as a matter of fact, we're just now looking at chapter 12 and chapter 13, where it talks about the great dragon, and it was a picture of Satan and the beast that comes out of the sea and the beast that comes out of the earth and how they are going to wreak havoc. They are given the authority to go ahead and attack and overwhelm believers.

Speaker 3 21:42

And the whole book of Revelation was really about the difficulties. I say difficulties but it's way beyond that the martyrdom that those early believers were suffering at the time. And looking at it in terms of throughout the years, there's always been people who had to take a difficult stand for Jesus and they suffered for it. And with Revelation, that book is just all about. What do you need? And the verses in chapter 13 talk about?

Speaker 3 22:27

You need patient endurance and you need wisdom, the way you have patient endurance and you need wisdom. The way you have patient endurance is by being still, by recognizing that it's not up to you, it's not even about you. I mean, all that's going on in your life is not about you, it's not. And all the things that we see in the world today, we look at the political things that are going on, we see the behaviors of people and so on, and we think of it as being those are human characteristics, fallen humanity doing so and so and so and so and so and so. No, that is the superficial level. There are principalities and powers beneath that. We are always under attack and sometimes the attack is purely satanic. Sometimes it is just his effect on the world, sometimes it's our own flesh and so on. But the cure for all those things is that silence where we can step back and then look at him, look at his word, take our eyes off of the beast and put our eyes on Jesus.

Speaker 1 24:11

And when we do that, it makes all the difference in our lives, the in the pain, even in the suffering. I think it goes back to God has a plan in it Because he doesn't leave us in it. He never left us in it, as a matter of fact, even when he is dispensing the curses in Genesis 3. We have a glimpse of the gospel when he's pronouncing the curse on the serpent that the seed of the woman will crush the head. That who is that? That's Jesus. That even in the midst of our sin, even in the midst of our suffering, we have fallen, we've betrayed him. Even in the midst of that there's grace. He's showing us grace. He's going look, I'm not going to leave you here. And he walks with us and we betray him. And he picks us back up, dusts us off and says come on, let's keep going. And we betray him. And he picks us up and he dusts us off and he keeps going and we betray him and we betray him.

Speaker 1 25:29

He exiles us out of the land that he promised us and even in the midst of exile, he sends Jeremiah to say I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future. It's not so that I'll have a great job one day or that kind of future. No, he's saying you're in exile, you've forgotten the covenant that I made with you. You've betrayed me again, and so now here's what's going to happen. I'm going to come.

Speaker 1 26:05

I'm going to do what you can't do. I'm going to put on flesh, I'm going to become man. I'm going to live the life you can't live. I'm going to die the death that you deserve to die, but I'm going to take your place and my righteousness is going to become your righteousness. Who I am is what I'm going to impute to you through my son. I'm not going to leave you in your suffering, which I think is why when Paul in Romans, chapter 5, says therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into the grace in which we stand, and we rejoice Check this out and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in what Our suffering? Why? Knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Speaker 3 27:42

Paul could certainly turn a phrase, couldn't he? Especially when the Holy Spirit is prompting him?

Speaker 1 27:47

Yeah, he doesn't leave us there, and I think that's the beauty of this song. It is Be still my soul. Your God does undertake to guide the future as he has the past, your hope, your confidence. Let nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Be still my soul. The waves and winds still know his voice. Who ruled them while he lived below? His voice. Who ruled them while he lived below, Even in the midst of the storm. His voice ruled the winds and the waves, Even when he was asleep. His voice controls the wind. His voice controls the waves. He controls the ebb and the flow of our life, and the good and the bad. He has control over it. He doesn't always take us out of it, because he has a plan in it, and I think it goes back to Romans 8.

Speaker 3 28:59

It's a plan to take that bad and work it for good. Well, and finally, the ultimate good is actually expressed beautifully in the fourth verse, Because his plan is not just for our good and our well-being here while we are here on this earth, Because he recognizes and he tells us we are not citizens just of this world, we are citizens of heaven. And if we recognize that we're just sojourning, we're just traveling a path nowadays, but we are living because, you know, Jesus says I'm the resurrection and life. He who believes me will never die and even if he dies, he will still live. I mean that is the truth that he tells us there.

Speaker 3 29:42

And then, fourth verse here be still my soul. The hour is hastening on when we shall be forever with the Lord, when disappointment, grief and fear are gone, sorrow forgot, love's purest joy is restored. Be still my soul. When change and tears are past, All safe and blessed, we shall meet at last. I mean that's the ultimate truth. We are going to be with him forever and ever. That's not what temporary hassles we undergo here. We can be still and recognize they will pass, yeah, They'll pass. And even if the difficult results in our physical death, then it's still going to pass and we still have that bright forever future Very, very nice, nice job Well with that.

Speaker 2 30:51

Thank you Thank you for being on the podcast.

Speaker 1 30:54

As always, every time, I love having you, I love being able to talk about these amazing hymns, and I know we said last time that you were going to do praise, praise to the Lord the almighty. And then I switched up and I went oh, we need to do this one because we haven't, and we've been talking about it forever and ever. So next time we'll do praise to the Lord the almighty.

Speaker 3 31:19

Sounds like a great plan.

Speaker 1 31:21

Awesome. Thank you again.

Speaker 3 31:22

You're welcome, thank you.

Speaker 1 31:30

I love getting to talk to my dad. Every single time I get a chance to talk to him is fun, and I love getting to hear his insights. So, again, thank you for coming on the podcast and um, it was really a lot of fun. And, uh, with that we're going to do, um, a different version of this song. We've talked about how this song just kind of lends itself to the music, and this particular version is a little bit more upbeat than you're probably used to hearing, and I just want to give you that and preface that it's done by Nathan Drake of Reawaken Hymns. I love his stuff.

Speaker 1 32:12

My goodness, if you love doing hymns and you want to do hymns in a contemporary setting in your church, reawaken Hymns is fantastic. He does such a great job reimagining the music and really bringing it into a more contemporary feel. If you have a chance to use Reawaken Hymn he has so many resources Please go and check out reawakenhymnscom. Nathan Drake he has been so gracious to let me put his recordings onto our podcast and so if you can go and support him in any way, that would be absolutely awesome, because he really is doing something that not a lot of people are doing. It's really, really cool and reawaken hymns. Does a great job with all of that, so if you have a chance to support him in any way, please do. Please do so.

Speaker 2 33:32

Be still my soul. The Lord is on your side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to your God To order and provide. In every change he, faithful, will remain. Be still my soul. Your best, your heavenly friends, through thorny ways, leads to a joyful end. Be still my soul. Your God will undertake to guide the future as he has the past. Your hope, your confidence that nothing shake, all now mysterious, shall be bright at last. Be still my soul. The waves and winds can blow. His voice you'll hear While he dwells below. We are now at Upper Session Road. Then you will better know His love, his heart. Who comes to soothe your sorrow and your fears? Be still my soul. Your Jesus can repay From His own fullness all he takes away. Be still my soul. Hours hastening on when we shall be forever with the Lord, when disappointment, grief and fear are gone, sorrow forgotten love's purest joys restored.

Speaker 1 36:39

Be still my soul when change and tears are past. All safe and blessed wens of the Spirit. Nathan Drake at Reawaken Hymns does an entire project called the Trinity Project. It's hymns of the Father, hymns of the Son and hymns of the Spirit, and this particular song, be Still my Soul, is off of the Hymns of the Spirit album. If you have a chance to use any of his resources again, it is fantastic.

Speaker 1 37:28

With that, let's close in prayer. Father, I thank you so much that, god, we can be still and know that you are God, that God in the stillness we see you. We're changed by you. God, help us in this week and in upcoming weeks, god, to truly make that time. It is so hard with the busyness of our world and all the to where we can just stop. It doesn't have to be a long time, it doesn't have to be weeks or days. It can be moments of time to just sit and think about you and worship you and give you time to speak to us. So, god, let that be our prayer Be still my soul and help us to know that you are on our side. We love you, we praise you. We give you all the honor and all the glory in Jesus name, amen.

Speaker 2 39:22

Thank you all again for listening. Have a wonderful week and we'll see you back here next week. We're out, thank you.