It Is Well

Nicole C. Mullen sings “It Is Well,” the hymn by Horatio Spafford with music by Philip Bliss. Spafford wrote the words in the 1870s after he lost his four daughters when the ship carrying them across the Atlantic went down. The first verse says that when peace like a river or sorrows like sea billows come, he has been taught to say it is well with his soul.

The second part moves to the cross. The singer calls it a glorious thought that her sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and borne no more, and responds with praise to the Lord. The last verse looks ahead, asking the Lord to hasten the day when faith will be sight, when the clouds will be rolled back like a scroll, the trumpet will sound and the Lord will descend. Even so, the verse ends, it is well with my soul. Mullen's voice is warm and her arrangement is quiet, which lets the weight of the lyrics come through. The story behind the hymn makes it a song for funerals and for anyone who has gone through a loss they cannot explain, and it fits any service that wants to confess trust in God when the news is bad. The words do not deny pain; they place it under a larger promise.

Peace like a river is Isaiah 48:18. The debt nailed to the cross is Colossians 2:14, and the trumpet and the Lord's descent are 1 Thessalonians 4:16.