Blessed Assurance

Two verses of Fanny Crosby's hymn carry the first half of Elevation Worship's version nearly word for word. The first stacks four claims about the believer, "Heir of salvation, purchase of God, / Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood," and starts from the possessive that drives it: "Jesus is mine." The second moves from doctrine to posture. "Perfect submission, all is at rest" describes someone "watching and waiting, looking above," filled with His goodness and "lost in His love."

The refrain, "This is my story, this is my song," is repeated rather than developed, which gives a congregation time to claim it as their own testimony. After it comes what the arrangement adds: a chant of "Oh what a Savior, wonderful Jesus," marked to be sung twice, and a bridge that changes direction. "Death could not hold You, You are victorious / Praise to the risen King" ties the hymn's confidence to the resurrection that makes it possible.

That bridge sits close to Peter's statement in Acts 2:24 that it was not possible for death to hold Him. The earlier lines draw on Romans 8:17 for heirship, Revelation 1:5 for the washing, and Hebrews 10:22 for the full assurance of faith, before the song settles on a last quiet "Wonderful Savior."