Leaning on The Everlasting Arms

I have recently had the pleasure of reacquainting myself with some of the precious hymns that are sung too little in churches today. Even when they are sung, more often than not, the attention is given to the music and the tune rather than the words. However, many of them contain great truths that have been revealed to men and women who have walked closely with the Lord. The best hymns are those that elegantly restate some of the core messages in the Bible.

The core message that I am discussing in this article can be summed up in a simple chorus from a hymn:

                 Leaning, leaning,

Safe and secure from all alarms;

Leaning, leaning,

Leaning on the everlasting arms.

As he was writing these words, I am sure that E. A. Hoffman had found the comfort obtained by the simple act of leaning on the everlasting arms of the Lord. Although it is an incredibly simple message, and it’s execution appears to be easy, it can be very difficult to live this way in reality. The idea of leaning seems to suggest that the one who is doing the leaning is too weak to stand on their own two feet. The world encourages us to be independent and help ourselves to get what we want – the very opposite of leaning. Yet, God in His wisdom asks us to lean upon Him.

A few things can be said of a person who has to physically lean on something to support their weight. Firstly, that person could have broken or injured part of their body that would usually support them. People who have broken one of their legs, for example, need crutches to lean on when they are standing up. Others who require crutches may be sick, which leads to weakness. Whatever the cause, the person who leans will always feel dependent on their crutches. Without the crutches, they may feel helpless.

As you can see from the examples of physical leaning, the person who leans is not in very good shape. It is not pleasant to have to admit to being broken, weak, or helpless. Yet this is what we should be like spiritually before the Lord if we are truly going to lean on Him. A key point here is that we all need the support the Lord offers, as we are spiritually crippled without Him. Just as a physically crippled person cannot expect to walk normally without crutches, so we cannot expect to walk spiritually without recognising our need to lean on Him.

When the Lord Jesus spoke to the lukewarm church in the book of Revelation, one of His main issues was that they did not recognise that they needed His support. In their minds, they had ‘need of nothing’ – it was a wealthy church that seemed to have it all together. Yet, Jesus’ estimation of them was: you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked (Rev. 3:17). He knew that they needed to lean on Him and to receive real spiritual wealth from Him, yet they could not see it. From their example we can see that before one can lean on the Lord, you need to realise just how much you need Him.

Jacob was a man who needed to physically lean on a staff for most of his life. His physical disability was actually caused by the Lord, who dislocated Jacob’s hip (Gen. 32:22-26). In that physical wrestling match I believe the Lord had a spiritual lesson for Jacob and others who would read his story. Up until that point, Jacob had got by in life through his own schemes and hard work. He had a growing family and a large herd of livestock (a healthy bank account, in today’s terms). It would have been easy for him to continue in his own strength and become successful in terms of earthly wealth, but God had greater plans for him. After dislocating Jacob’s hip, the Lord named him Israel, which is translated “prince with God”. From this point onwards, Jacob had to lean on his staff, and learn to lean on God for the blessings in his life.

Besides being weak or injured, we may need to physically lean on something when we are tired or exhausted. Similarly, in our day-to-day lives we may become tired when faced with problems, and we may add to that tiredness by stressing about these problems. It is when we grow weary of dealing with our problems that we are most likely to realise that we need to lean on someone or something for support. The Lord Jesus offers us this invitation: “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28). Sadly, we often find many other things to lean on before we turn to the Lord.

The kinds of things that we may lean on in times of distress are often temporary, unstable, or too weak to support us. We may initially look to the world’s support systems to help us. In financial difficulties, people look to the banks, loan sharks, or their friends to try and dig themselves out of debt. For psychological problems like stress, they look to therapists and/or drugs to try and sort themselves out. These and other worldly support systems are often the first things that people turn to when in need.

In the Old Testament, the world and its systems were often represented by Egypt, as the people of Israel had come out of Egypt and often considered turning away from the Lord and going back there. Even when Israel was settled as a nation, it seemed to view Egypt as a source of strength. When they were threatened by military invasion, Israel looked to Egypt to come to their rescue, rather than God. Israel’s reliance on Egypt was compared to a person leaning on a sharp reed (Ezk. 29:6-7). Not only did the reed provide insufficient support, but it could also be harmful as the sharp end dug into the hand of the person leaning on it.

Similarly, when Christians look to the world for support, we are choosing to lean on a sharp reed, rather than the everlasting arms of the Lord. The world’s systems may seem to be reliable and stable, yet there is always a chance that they will fail and harm us further in the process. Note here that I am not advocating that we avoid using every worldly system (e.g. keeping your savings under your mattress), but that we recognise that any real support must come from God. When the Israelites asked God to prevent military invasion, He rescued them using a combination of political events and a direct intervention from heaven (see 2 Kings chapters 18 & 19 for the full story). The Lord may use current events, people, worldly institutions, or even a miracle to rescue you from your situation, but He wants us to realise that He is the ultimate Rescuer.

Another source of support that we may use rather than the Lord is other people. Instead of bringing our burdens to the Lord, we look to ‘off-load’ them on our family and friends first. In some cases, we may rely on a pastor or a church to get us through our difficulties. Here again, I am not saying that one cannot receive help from the people in your life, just that you must not look to these people as the ultimate source of your help.

Every human being has their own set of frailties, difficulties, and limitations. Consequently, if we are leaning too heavily on someone else they may let us down by not being able to help, or they may buckle under the pressure we are placing on them. If we are leaning on people like this, then it is unlikely to work out and we may end up hurting all involved. However, if we lean on the Lord, then He will choose the right people to support us in the right ways so that all involved (both those providing and receiving support) will draw nearer to Him. This is especially true within the Church, as the members should help and support one another, but only as the Head of the Church (Jesus) directs us (Eph. 4:15-16).

Finally, although not all of us may lean on the world or on other people, we all tend to rely on what is perhaps the most foolish kind of support of them all – ourselves. We need only to imagine physically crippled people trying to lean on themselves in order to grasp just how foolish this is spiritually. Yet we do it all the time, and often land up in a worse state than we were in before our self-help efforts. We try the ‘pull yourself together’ routine, only to later realise that the problems we are facing are beyond what we are able to bear.

Just as the Lord did with Jacob and his children the nation of Israel, He may cause our frailties or allow seemingly unconquerable armies to come against us for this very reason. The Lord is trying to get us to the point where we have reached the end of our own abilities and are finally ready to lean on Him. Once we start leaning on Him, then He is able to control any situation we find ourselves in, and lead us out of it - Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths (Prov. 3:5).

It is only when we have really started to lean on the Lord that we find the joy, blessedness, and peace He has in store for us. As E.A. Hoffman so elegantly described in his hymn:

What a fellowship, what a joy divine,

Leaning on the everlasting arms;

What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,

Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Leaning, leaning,

Safe and secure from all alarms;

Leaning, leaning,

Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way,

Leaning on the everlasting arms;

Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day,

Leaning on the everlasting arms.

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

Leaning on the everlasting arms;

I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,

Leaning on the everlasting arms.