CHRISTIAN LIFE >> Guidance
SDAH 551
Jesus, Savior, pilot me
over life’s tempestuous sea;
unknown waves before me roll,
hiding rock and treacherous shoal.
This hymn appears in:
Get the hymn sheet in other keys here
For Worship Leaders
Make each hymn more meaningful with these helpful tools: Short, ready-to-use hymn introductions for church bulletins, multiple ways to introduce a hymn based on your worship theme and in-depth history and insights to enrich your song service.
📖 Reference: Feel free to share but please cite hymnsforworship.org when reproducing.
Introductions for Sabbath School Song Service (based on specific lesson quarterlies):
Edward Hopper wrote these words anonymously in 1871; they appeared in The Sailor’s Magazine and in The Baptist Praise Book that same year. When the hymn was printed in Spiritual Songs, 1878, he revealed that he was the author. There were three other stanzas.
Hopper was born on February 17, 1818, in New York City. He graduated from its university and then proceeded to the Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he graduated in 1842. He pastored some Presbyterian churches in New York State, but he spent most of his ministry at the Church of the Sea and Land in New York City; therefore, he had much to do with seafaring men in his work. He wrote two other hymns and died in New York on April 23, 1888.
John Edgar Gould, the son of a sea captain, composed the tune PILOT in 1871 especially for these words. He was born in Bangor, Maine, in 1822 and published several hymnbooks. He was also a conductor and composed several hymn tunes. By the age of 30 he had a music publishing shop on Broadway, New York City; later he entered into partnership in a retail piano business in Philadelphia with William Gustavus Fischer (see SDAH 307). He suffered ill health and went for a trip to southern Europe and North Africa to recuperate, but died at Algiers on March 4, 1875.
📖 Reference: Companion to the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal by Wayne Hooper and Edward E. White. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1988.
Text
1
Jesus, Savior, pilot me
over life’s tempestuous sea;
unknown waves before me roll,
hiding rock and treacherous shoal.
Chart and compass come from thee;
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
2
As a mother stills her child,
thou canst hush the ocean wild;
boisterous waves obey thy will,
when thou sayest to them, “Be still!”
Wondrous sov’reign of the sea,
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.
3
When at last I near the shore,
and the fearful breakers roar
‘twixt me and the peaceful rest,
then, while leaning on thy breast,
may I hear thee say to me,
Fear not, I will pilot thee.
Hymn Info
Biblical Reference
(b) Mark 4:39 (c) Isa 43:1, 3
Author
Edward Hopper (1818-1888)
Year Published
1871
Hymn Tune
PILOT
Metrical Number
7.7.7.7.7.7.
Composer
John E. Gould (1822-1875)
