Xanthe Hancox

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going further. But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.’ So he went in to stay with them.  Luke 24:28-29

"Abide with me" is a hymn you may recognise from funerals or, if you’re a football fan, from the FA Cup Final where the first and third verses have been sung before kick off since 1927. 

It’s an obvious choice for a funeral hymn; it speaks of dusk, of falling eventide, deepening darkness, growing dimness, and fading glories. Furthermore, it was written by Henry Francis Lyte as he was dying of tuberculosis. He wrote this poem as a prayer to Christ, echoing the words of the disciples in Luke 24 as they walked along the road to Emmaus with the risen Jesus.

But the disciples’ request to Jesus echoed in Lyte’s hymn are not just words for the dying, they are words for us, today. One of the verses of "Abide with me" goes like this:

I need Thy presence every passing hour.

What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?

Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?

Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

This hymn reminds us to plead with our Lord to abide with us, to stay with us. To be there unchanging when all around us changes. To stay with us through cloud and sunshine, through our joys and sorrows. When we desire God’s presence, he will reveal himself to us, just as he did to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. And he will reassure us as he did them in Matthew 28:20, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Prayer: Father, I need your presence in my life, today and every day. As the old hymn says, it is only through your grace that I am able to resist the tempter’s power. Abide with me today and always. Amen

You can listen to the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, singing "Abide with me" here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmjuqZSH_aY