Be Still, My Soul: All Five Verses, the Story Behind the Hymn and the Bible Verses Behind Each Line (KJV)

Very little is known about Katharina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel (born 1697). She may have been a canoness in a Lutheran women's foundation at Köthen in Germany, and she belonged to the Pietist movement, which stressed heartfelt personal faith. Her hymn Stille, mein Wille appeared in a German collection in 1752. A century later in Scotland, Jane Laurie Borthwick (1813-1897) and her sister Sarah Findlater were translating German hymns for English readers, and Jane's version of this one was published in Hymns from the Land of Luther in 1855. Then, in the twentieth century, hymnal editors set it to the soaring central melody of Finlandia, the 1899 tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, and the hymn found its voice. It is a hymn of talking to yourself in the right way. Instead of listening to its fears, the soul is told what is true about God. Below are all five of Borthwick's stanzas and the 12 KJV passages behind them.

Be Still, My Soul: the words

Verse 1
Be still, my soul! the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief and pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul! thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Verse 2
Be still, my soul! thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past:
Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake,
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul! the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Verse 3
Be still, my soul! when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul! thy Jesus can repay
From His own fulness all He takes away.

Verse 4
Be still, my soul! the hour is hastening on
When we shall be for ever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul! when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

Verse 5
Be still, my soul! begin the song of praise
On earth, believing, to thy Lord on high;
Acknowledge Him in all thy works and ways,
So shall He view thee with a well-pleased eye.
Be still, my soul! the Sun of life divine
Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.

Words: Katharina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel, Stille, mein Wille! dein Jesus hilft siegen (1752); English translation by Jane Laurie Borthwick, Hymns from the Land of Luther (Edinburgh, 1855). All 5 stanzas are copied from the 1860 edition of Hymns from the Land of Luther, pages 84-85, under the heading Submission (Internet Archive scan); Borthwick's dash after each Be still, my soul! is left out here. Most hymnals print stanzas 1-3. Tune: Finlandia, from Jean Sibelius's Finlandia (1899), first paired with these words in the early twentieth century; the melody is in the US public domain. Public domain.

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side

1. Psalms 46:10

Be still, my soul! The hymn's refrain-like opening rests on one of the best-known verses in the Bible: Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. In Psalm 46 the earth is shaking, mountains are falling into the sea and nations are raging. Be still is not advice to relax. It is a command to stop striving and fighting and to recognize who God is. The hymn applies it inwardly. Every stanza begins by telling the anxious soul to stop and remember. For more, see Psalm 46.

2. Psalms 118:6

The Lord is on thy side. Schlegel's first reason for stillness is not a change of circumstances but a fact about God. The psalmist sang: The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? If the LORD is for you, every other threat is put in proportion. That does not mean you will not face trouble; the same psalm speaks of being surrounded by enemies. It means the outcome is in safe hands. Paul asks the same question in Romans 8:31: If God be for us, who can be against us?

3. Luke 21:19

Bear patiently the cross of grief and pain. Borthwick headed her translation with this verse: In your patience possess ye your souls. Jesus spoke it while warning His disciples of persecution, betrayal and hatred to come. Patience here means steady endurance, staying put under a heavy load. To possess your soul is to keep hold of yourself, not to be swept away by panic or bitterness. That is exactly what the hymn is doing. It does not deny the cross of grief and pain. It teaches the soul how to carry it without losing itself.

4. Hebrews 13:5

In every change He faithful will remain. People change, health changes, homes and jobs change. Hebrews quotes God's own promise: I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. In the Greek the sentence piles up negatives, a way of saying I will never, ever leave you. The writer gives it as a reason for contentment: be content with such things as ye have. A soul that knows God will not leave can hold everything else more loosely. That is the stillness Schlegel describes: not having everything settled, but having the One who is faithful.

The waves and winds still know His voice

5. Mark 4:39

The waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below. One evening a violent storm hit the disciples' boat while Jesus slept. They woke Him in terror, and He arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. The hymn's point is that the same Jesus still rules the waves now that He is no longer on earth. The storms in your life still know His voice. He may not calm every storm immediately, but He is never asleep to your danger, and nothing is outside His command.

6. Psalms 37:7

Leave to thy God to order and provide. David counsels: Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way. Fretting is the opposite of stillness. It is the restless turning over of problems we cannot solve. Psalm 37 says three times, fret not. Instead, it says, commit your way to the LORD and wait. Schlegel's phrase leave to thy God is a beautiful way to say it. Some things are simply not ours to arrange. Leaving them with God is not laziness; it is trust.

7. Romans 8:28

Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end. Paul's great promise stands behind this line: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. It does not say all things are good. Thorny ways are real and they hurt. It says God works all things, including the thorns, together toward a good end for His people. Thy God doth undertake to guide the future, as He has the past. The God who brought you this far knows the way home. See our page on Romans 8:28.

8. 1 Corinthians 13:12

All now mysterious shall be bright at last. Much of what happens to us makes no sense at the time. Paul admits this: For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. A glass in Paul's day was a metal mirror that gave a dim, blurry reflection. One day the blur will clear. Stillness does not require understanding everything now. It rests on the promise that the mysteries will be made bright, and that God already knows us completely.

When dearest friends depart: for ever with the Lord

9. Psalms 34:18

Be still, my soul! when dearest friends depart, and all is darkened in the vale of tears. The third stanza is for the grieving, which is why the hymn is so often sung at funerals. David writes: The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. God draws near to broken hearts. The hymn says that in grief you will better know His love, His heart. Many believers say the same: the hardest seasons of their lives were where they came to know Jesus most deeply.

10. Job 1:21

Thy Jesus can repay from His own fulness all He takes away. Job lost his children, his servants and his wealth in a single day, and he said: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. Job's story ends with restoration, though not with forgetting. Schlegel's line goes further than Job could see. In Jesus there is a fulness, John 1:16 says, from which we receive grace upon grace. Nothing taken from us is beyond His power to make up, whether in this life or in the next.

11. 1 Thessalonians 4:17

The hour is hastening on when we shall be for ever with the Lord. Paul wrote to comfort believers in Thessalonica whose loved ones had died. He described Christ's return and the resurrection, ending: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Then he added: Wherefore comfort one another with these words. Schlegel's fourth stanza is that comfort put to music. All safe and blessed we shall meet at last. For Christians, every goodbye to a believer is a see you later. The reunion is as certain as the promise of Christ's coming.

12. Proverbs 3:6

Acknowledge Him in all thy works and ways. The final stanza turns from grief to praise and from the future to today. It borrows from Proverbs: In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. To acknowledge God is to recognize Him, to bring Him into every decision and every part of ordinary life. Begin the song of praise on earth: the hymn does not wait for heaven to start rejoicing. It ends with the sun breaking through passing clouds, which is what trust feels like on a hard day. See Proverbs 3:5-6.

A short prayer

Lord, my soul is restless and afraid, so I bring it to You. Help me to be still and know that You are God. You are on my side; You will never leave me nor forsake me. When the winds and waves rise, remind me that they still know Your voice. When dearest friends depart, draw near to my broken heart and repay from Your fulness all that You have taken away. Guide my future as You have guided my past, and teach me to acknowledge You in all my ways until I am for ever with You. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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Frequently asked questions

Who wrote Be Still, My Soul?

The original German hymn, Stille, mein Wille! dein Jesus hilft siegen, was written by Katharina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel and published in 1752. The English translation used today is by Jane Laurie Borthwick of Edinburgh, published in Hymns from the Land of Luther in 1855. The tune is Finlandia by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1899), adapted as a hymn tune in the early twentieth century.

Is Be Still, My Soul sung to Finlandia?

Yes. In most English-language hymnals it is sung to the hymn tune Finlandia, the quiet central melody from Jean Sibelius's tone poem Finlandia (1899). Sibelius later arranged the melody as the Finlandia Hymn, which is sung in Finland with different words as a patriotic song. The tune is also used for other hymns, such as We Rest on Thee. The melody is in the public domain in the US.

How many verses does Be Still, My Soul have?

Jane Borthwick translated five stanzas, all printed on this page. Most hymnals print only the first three, ending with thy Jesus can repay from His own fulness all He takes away. Stanza 4 (the hour is hastening on when we shall be for ever with the Lord) is especially fitting for funerals, and stanza 5 turns to praise.

Is Be Still, My Soul a funeral hymn?

It is one of the most-requested funeral hymns, because its third and fourth stanzas speak directly to grief: when dearest friends depart, and the promise that all safe and blessed we shall meet at last. It is equally fitting in times of anxiety, illness or waiting. See also our Bible verses about being still for Scripture to read alongside it.

Sources: All Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (KJV), public domain in the United States. References were checked against the KJV text from bible-api.com.

Related: Being Still · Psalm 46 · Peace · Trusting God · Abide with Me · It Is Well with My Soul · Grief · Storms

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