Hymn Story: My Savior, My God

 (Sam Stack)  Hebrews 2:17-18 – It was necessary for Jesus to be made in every respect lie us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God.  Then He could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people.  Since He himself has gone through suffering and testing, He is able to help us when we are being tested.

My Savior, My God, as we sing it, has a rich heritage when we take a deeper look at this contemporary hymn.  The words were written as a poem entitled “I Am Not Skilled to Understand” in a book called “Songs of Salvation by Dora Greenwell.

Miss Greenwell was born in 1821, into a well-to-do English family, her father died when she was young and the family lost their fortune.  Ms. Greenwell worked with the disabled children in London.  She began writing at the age of 39 and wrote this song at the age of 52.  Miss Greenwell relied on her faith in God to help her through her difficult life.  Each verse of this song has references to scripture:

Verse 1:
Acts 7:56
and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

 

Verse 2:
Romans 5:8-9
⁸ But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

 

Verse 3:
 John 6:38
³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

 

Romans 5:6
⁶ For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

 

Verse 4 John 4:13-14,
¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

 

Revelation 1:5-6
⁵ and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,
⁶ and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:9-10
⁹ For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

 

Fast forward to 2002, Aaron Shust, while serving as a Worship Leader at a church in Atlanta, came across this song in an old hymnal and wrote new music for his church adding an additional chorus. Now we have a beautiful worship song spanning 150 years of worship for our great Savior.

 

My Savior My God

 

Verse 1

I am not skilled to understand
What God has willed what God has planned
I only know at His right hand
Stands One who is my Savior

 

Verse 2

I take Him at His word and deed
Christ died to save me this I read
And in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my Savior

 

Pre-Chorus

That He would leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die
You count it strange so once did I
Before I knew my Savior

 

Chorus

My Savior loves my Savior lives
My Savior's always there for me
My God He was my God He is
My God is always gonna be
(REPEAT)

 

Verse 3

Yes living dying let me bring
My strength my solace from this spring
That He who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior

 

Aaron Shust | Dorothy Greenwell

© 2005 Bridge Building Music, Inc. (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc.)

This Hymn Story was originally published in The Associational Advisor, December 2020.