Stand By Me (UMH 512)
When the storms of life are raging,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When the storms of life are raging,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When the world is tossing me
Like a ship upon the sea,
thou Who rulest wind and water,
Stand by me (stand by me).
In the midst of tribulation,
Stand by me (stand by me);
In the midst of tribulation,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When the hosts of hell assail,
And my strength begins to fail,
thou Who never lost a battle,
Stand by me (stand by me).
In the midst of faults and failures,
Stand by me (stand by me);
In the midst of faults and failures,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When I do the best I can,
And my friends misunderstand,
thou Who knowest all about me,
Stand by me (stand by me).
In the midst of persecution,
Stand by me (stand by me);
In the midst of persecution,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When my foes in battle array
Undertake to stop my way,
thou Who savèd Paul and Silas,
Stand by me (stand by me).
When I’m growing old and feeble,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When I’m growing old and feeble,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When my life becomes a burden,
And I’m nearing chilly Jordan,
O thou “Lily of the Valley,”
Stand by me (stand by me).
Words and Music: Charles Albert
Tindley ca. 1906
CHARLES TINDLEY IS A MAN who persevered through a difficult life. His mother died when he was little more than two years old. He was raised by his loving father who was later on forced to hire Charles out for work due to economic hardship.
Tindley describes his struggle to learn and read and comments on how this experience affected him.
“It therefore became my lot to be ‘hired out’, wherever father could place me. e people with whom I lived were not all good. Some of them were very cruel to me. I was not permitted to have a book or go to church. I used to find bits of newspaper on the roadside and put them in my bosom (for I had no pockets), in order to study the ABC’s from them.
“During the day, I would gather pine knots, and when the people were asleep at night I would light these pine knots, and, lying flat on my stomach to prevent being seen by anyone who might still be about would, with fire-coals, mark all the words I could make out on these bits of newspaper. I continued in this way, and without any teacher, until I could read the Bible almost without stopping to spell the words.”
Through diligence and hard work he taught himself to read and write. At 17 he worked as a janitor at the Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church in 1902. While working as janitor in the morning, he attended night school and took correspondence courses at Boston University School of Theology.
Tindley became a successful pastor of the same church where he worked as a janitor. One of his outstanding talents was his ability to write gospel hymns.
Usually, his hymns were embedded in his sermons. The church grew under his leadership. When he died, the church had 12,500 members.
“Stand by Me” is one of the most famous of Tindley’s many gospel songs. The first stanza alludes to Mark 4:35-40, Luke 8:22-25 and Matthew 8:23-27 – where Jesus calms the storm. The subsequent stanzas describe life as not always smooth sailing. There is tribulation, the “hosts of hell assail”, we lose hope, we lose strength. In the midst of all these, we call on Christ: “Stand by me!”
In the final stanza, Tindley talks about the assurance of meeting our Lord – the “Lily of the Valley”. It is He who has the power to comfort and save us.
Judith Mosomos is a Lecturer in Church Music at the Methodist School of Music.
