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Joseph Addison Alexander, the remarkable Biblical scholar who was skilled in 25 languages, was also a prolific poet. In 1833, while on travel in Europe, he wrote what his biographer, H.C. Alexander, called “one of his noblest productions.”
Be Still and Know That I am God
I.
When fortune smiles and friends abound;
When all thy fondest hopes are crowned;
When earth with her exhaustless store,
Seems still intent to give thee more:
When every wind and every tide
Contribute to exalt thy pride;
When all the elements conspire
To feed thy covetous desire;
When foes submit and envy stands
Pale and abashed with folded hands;
While fame’s unnumbered tongues prolong
The swell of thy triumphal song;
When crowds admire and worlds applaud
”Be still and know that I am God.”
II.
When crowns are sported with and thrones
Are rocked to their foundation stones;
When nations tremble and the earth
Seems big with some portentous birth;
When all the ties of social life
Are severed by intestine strife;
When human blood begins to drip
From tyranny’s accursed whip;
When peace and order find their graves
In anarchy’s tempestuous waves;
When every individual hand
Is steeped in crime, and every land
Is full of violence and fraud;
”Be still and know that I am God.”
III.
When to the havoc man has made
The elements afford their aid;
When nature sickens, and disease
Rides on the wing of every breeze;
When the tornado in its flight
Blows the alarm and calls to fight;
When raging Fever leads the van,
In the fierce onset upon man;
When livid Plague and pale Decline
And bloated Dropsy, form the line;
While hideous Madness, shivering Fear
And grim Despair, bring up the rear;
When these thy judgments are abroad:
”Be still and know that I am God.”
IV.
When messages of grace are sent,
And mercy calls thee to repent;
When through a cloud of doubts and fears
The Sun of Righteousness appears;
When thy reluctant heart delays
To leave it’s old accustomed ways;
When pride excites a storm within,
And pleads and fights for every sin;
Be still, and and let this tumult cease;
Say to thy raging passions, “Peace!”
By love subdued, by judgment awed:
”Be still and know that I am God.”
