1. There is a safe and secret place
Beneath the wings divine
Reserved for all the heirs of grace;
Oh, be that refuge mine!
2. The least and feeblest there may bide
Uninjured and unawed;
While thousands fall on ev'ry side
They rest secure in God.
3. The angels watch them on their way
And aid with friendly arm;
While Satan, roaring for his prey,
May hate, but cannot harm.
4. They feed in pastures large and fair
Of love and truth divine.
O child of God, O Glory’s heir,
How rich a lot is thine!
5. A hand almighty to defend,
An ear for ev’ry call,
An honored life, a peaceful end,
And Heav’n to crown it all!
Source: Hymns and Devotions for Daily Worship #92
First Line: | There is a safe and secret place |
Title: | There Is a Safe and Secret Place |
Author: | Henry Francis Lyte (1836) |
Meter: | 8.6.8.6 |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
There is a safe and secret place. H. F. Lyte. [Ps. xci.] Appeared in his Spirit of the Psalms, 1834, as his C.M. version of Psalm 91, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines. It is very simple and tender, and is in somewhat extensive use in Great Britain and America. In the enlarged edition of the Spirit of the Psalms, 1836, stanza ii. lines 1,2, are altered from:—
“The least, the feeblest there may hide
Uninjured and unawed;"
to
"The least, the feeblest there may bide
Uninjured and unawed."
The change of thought from hiding in terror, to abiding in calm repose is a decided poetic improvement; and is certainly more in accord with the Psalmist's declaration "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday" (vers. 5, 6), than the original reading.
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)