Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

Text: Deuteronomy 33:27 “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms…”

Theme: Because our God is eternal, His people can safely rest their full weight upon Him.

Key Thought: When we reach the end of our strength, we have not reached the end of His.

The Story Behind the Hymn

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

The hymn was written in 1887 by Anthony J. Showalter and Elisha A. Hoffman.

Showalter was a musician, composer, and teacher who traveled throughout the South teaching singing schools. One day, while he was teaching in Hartselle, Alabama, he received letters from two of his former students.

Both men had experienced essentially the same tragedy:

Each had recently lost his wife.

Showalter wanted to write back and offer them some word of comfort, but what do you say to someone whose world has just been turned upside down?

His mind went to the promise of Deuteronomy 33:27:

“The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms…”

He wrote to the grieving men using that Scripture as his encouragement.

And as Showalter reflected on those words—

“…underneath are the everlasting arms…”

—the thought began to take the form of a song.

He developed the refrain built around the idea of leaning upon those everlasting arms.

Showalter then contacted his friend, hymn writer Elisha A. Hoffman, and asked him to write verses to accompany the refrain. Hoffman supplied the verses, while Showalter composed the music and is generally credited with the refrain.

The result was:

“Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.”

What Makes the Story So Powerful

Think about where this hymn came from.

It wasn't written because everything was going well.

It wasn't born out of prosperity.

It wasn't written by someone saying, “Look how easy the Christian life is.”

It was born out of two letters announcing death.

Two men were hurting.

Two men had lost the women they loved.

Two men were facing a tomorrow that looked completely different from the yesterday they had known.

And the answer Showalter gave them wasn't:

“Be strong.”

It was essentially:

“You have Someone to lean on.”

Those two grieving men probably felt like the bottom had fallen out from underneath them.

But Showalter reminded them of something Moses had told Israel thousands of years earlier:

When it feels like everything underneath you has disappeared, there is still something underneath you.

“The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

And from that promise came a hymn Christians have sung for generations:

“Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms…”

Tonight, I don't want to preach the hymn. I want to preach the verse that gave us the hymn.

Becasue People we have leaned upon may leave us.

Circumstances we have depended upon may change.

Our own strength may eventually fail us.

But underneath it all are the everlasting arms of an eternal God.

I. The Person We Lean On

“The eternal God is thy refuge…”

Our security is only as strong as the One upon whom we are leaning.

Moses doesn't begin with Israel's strength.

He points them to “the eternal God.”

A. He Is Eternal

“The eternal God…”

He has no beginning and He will have no end.

He was God before my trouble started.

He is God while I am going through it.

He will still be God when it is over.

Our circumstances change, people change, and our own strength changes—but . God does not change

Psalm 90:2 — “…from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

He Was God Yesterday

Before Israel ever had a problem, God was already God.

Before Pharaoh arose, God was there.

Before the Red Sea appeared, God was there.

Before the wilderness journey began, God was there.

Before Israel ever needed Him, He already was.

Psalm 90:2: “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

He Is God Today

Our circumstances change.

Our strength changes.

Our health changes.

People change.

Governments change.

Churches change.

But God does not.

Malachi 3:6: “For I am the LORD, I change not…”

The God Moses leaned upon is the same God we lean upon tonight.

He Will Be God Tomorrow

This is what makes “eternal” so comforting.

I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know God will already be there when I arrive.

We worry about tomorrow as though God might not make it there with us.

But He is eternal.

You cannot enter a tomorrow where God has ceased to be God.

Preaching thought: I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know when I get there, the eternal God will already be there.

B. He Is a Refuge

“…is thy refuge…” A refuge is a place of safety in the midst of danger. God never promised Israel they would never need a refuge.

He promised . He would be their refuge

Psalm 46:1 — “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

And there is a personal word here:

“THY refuge.”

Moses wasn't merely telling Israel what God could be.

He was telling them what God was to them.

It's one thing to know God is a refuge. It's another thing to run to Him and make Him your refuge.

Application

The strength of your faith isn't ultimately found in how tightly you can hold onto God.

It is found in who God is.

We sing:

“What have I to dread, what have I to fear, Leaning on the everlasting arms?”

The answer isn't that there is nothing frightening in life.

The answer is that there is Someone greater than everything we fear.

II. The Position of the One We Lean On

“…and UNDERNEATH are the everlasting arms…”

Don't miss that word:

UNDERNEATH.

I love that.

God doesn't merely promise to stand beside us.

He says His arms are underneath us.

A. Underneath Us When We Are Weak

Isaiah 40:29: “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.”

We often think God uses us because we are strong.

Sometimes God allows us to discover our weakness so that we will finally discover His strength.

Paul learned: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” — 2 Corinthians 12:9

You don't have to pretend you're strong when you're leaning on Someone who is.

B. Underneath Us When We Are Weary

There are times when you don't necessarily want to quit.

You're simply tired.

You've been carrying the burden.

You've been fighting the battle.

You've been praying the prayer.

You've been waiting on the answer.

You've been doing what you know to do.

And you're tired.

Isaiah 40:31: “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength…”

Sometimes God changes the circumstances.

Sometimes God gives us strength to continue through the circumstances.

But either way, His arms are underneath.

C. Underneath Us When We Fall

Psalm 37:23–24: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.”

Notice:

“Though he fall…”

God's people sometimes stumble.

God's people sometimes become discouraged.

God's people sometimes become overwhelmed.

But:

“…he shall not be utterly cast down.”

Why?

“For the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.”

You may go down.

But you cannot go lower than His arms.

That's Deuteronomy 33:27: “Underneath are the everlasting arms.”

III. The Power of the One We Lean On

“…the EVERLASTING ARMS.”

It wouldn't matter that His arms were underneath us if those arms weren't strong enough to hold us.

But these are the arms of “the eternal God.”

A. Powerful Enough to Hold Me

Isaiah 40:29“He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.”

I get weak.

He doesn't.

I get tired.

He doesn't.

I reach my limit.

He has none.

The hymn asks: “What have I to dread, what have I to fear, Leaning on the everlasting arms?”

My confidence isn't in the strength of my grip on God.

My confidence is in the strength of His arms underneath me.

B. Powerful Enough to Help Me

The rest of Deuteronomy 33:27 shouldn't be overlooked: “…and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them.”

Those everlasting arms aren't merely supporting arms.

They are powerful arms.

The God underneath Israel was also the God going before Israel.

What was too strong for Israel was not too strong for Israel's God.

C. They Will Carry Us All the Way Home

Psalm 48:14: “For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death.”

The God who saved us will sustain us.

The God who started the journey with us will finish the journey with us.

And when we finally come to the last valley we must cross, we will discover something:

The arms that carried us through life are strong enough to carry us through death.

Conclusion

— What Are You Leaning On?

That old hymn asks:

“What have I to dread, what have I to fear?”

Not because Christians never face frightening things.

We do.

Not because Christians never hurt.

We do.

Not because Christians never become weary.

We do.

But because:

“The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Maybe tonight you are tired.

Lean.

Maybe you're carrying something you cannot fix.

Lean.

Maybe you're worried about something coming tomorrow.

Lean.

Maybe you've been trying to hold everything together yourself.

Lean.

And here is the wonderful thing about leaning:

Leaning requires me to stop depending upon my own strength and place my weight upon the strength of another.

That's faith.

I don't have to be strong enough to carry everything when I have a God strong enough to carry me.

So tonight:

When you cannot understand — Lean. When you cannot see the way — Lean. When you cannot carry the burden — Lean. When your strength is gone — Lean. When your heart is breaking — Lean.

Because no matter how low the valley becomes…

no matter how heavy the burden becomes…

no matter how weak you become…

underneath are still the everlasting arms.