Story Behind the Hymn: How Firm A Foundation

History of “How Firm a Foundation”

What a nice hymn with a lovely message of having a foundation of faith and belief in Jesus can be so strong and firm. It has very strong Biblical references throughout the song and has been sung by many people throughout the ages and is a popular one with many Christian singers today. To check out this page online, you may read it on this link http://www.celebratingholidays.com/?page_id=11906.

Words published by John Rippon (1751-1836), Published in 1787

John Rippon (1751-1836)

This hymn was first published in a collection by John Rippon in 1787 — its authorship was attributed to a person with the initial “K.” Some scholars believe that Robert Keene, a worship leader and close friend to John, was the author. However, Keene was a hymn composer (he wrote the tunes, not the words for hymns), and since he was credited with authorship on his many tunes, it seems strange that he would not be credited with words that he penned. Ultimately, the author has yet to be identified with any certainty.
Whoever the author may have been, John Rippon is credited with popularizing the words. In 1775, John became the pastor of Carter’s Lane Baptist Church in London (a congregation that would later be pastored by the famous preacher Charles Spurgeon), where he served for over six decades. In 1787, he published his famous A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors, Intended to Be an Appendix to Dr. Watts’ Psalms and Hymns. This collection of hymns was reprinted 27 times, in over 200,000 copies.¹ It was used by his congregation (and many others) until 1866 when Spurgeon created a collection called Our Own Hymn Book (which borrowed significantly from both Rippon and Watts).²
“How Firm a Foundation” was first printed in America in 1820, and it quickly gained popularity throughout the United States. President Andrew Jackson asked that it be sung at his bedside shortly before he died, and it was sung at the funeral of General Robert E. Lee, by his request, “as an expression of his full trust in the ways of the Heavenly Father;” it was also the favorite hymn of President Theodore Roosevelt.³ America’s love for this hymn was perhaps best revealed during the Spanish-American War — on Christmas Eve of 1898, Northerners and Southerners in the U.S. Army joined together to sing it.

Tune “Foundation” (American Folk Tune), Published in 1832


The source of the tune remains as much of a mystery as the authorship of the text. It seems that it first appeared in 1832 with the name “Protection” in A Compilation of Genuine Church Music, by Joseph Funk, and then in 1844 with the name “Bellevue” in The Sacred Harp. According to hymnologist Donald Hustad, “it is generally agreed that it was one of the most widely sung folk hymn tunes in the South.”⁴