Mary and My God is a Rock

Today’s musical offering, the spiritual My God is a Rock in a weary land, is from the choir archives. This spiritual, again born out of the oppression of enslavement of African Americans, proclaims the strength of God as a Rock in a weary land, while also teaching Bible stories in the tradition of rhymed couplets organized around ten ‘chapters’, with the opening refrain surrounding the ‘chapters’. Our former bass section leader, Corbin Phillips sings the verses.

Refrain: My God is a rock in a weary land, Shelter in a time of storm.

Stop and let me tell you about the Chapter One
When the Lord God’s work was just begun.
Stop and let me tell you about the Chapter Two
When the Lord God writ the Bible through.
Stop and let me tell you about the Chapter Three
When the Lord God died on Calvary.
Stop and let me tell you about the Chapter Four
When the Lord God visited the poor.
Stop and let me tell about the Chapter Five
When the Lord God brought the dead alive.
Stop and let me tell you about the Chapter Six
He went in Jerusalem and healed the sick.
Stop and let me tell you about the Chapter Seven
Died and risen and went to heaven.
Stop and let me tell you about the Chapter Eight
John seen Him standing at the Golden Gate.
Stop and let me tell you about the Chapter Nine
The Lord God turned the water to wine.
Stop and let me tell you about the Chapter Ten
John says He’s coming in the world again.

The idea of God as our Rock is heard in the Scriptures. Isaiah 32, verses 1 and 2 in the old King James’ Bible may well have been familiar to slaves:

“Behold a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”

In the New English Bible this phrase becomes “as the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.”

Likewise in Psalm 18:1-2:

I love you O Lord my strength,*
O Lord my stronghold, my crag, and my haven.
My God, my rock in whom I put my trust,*
My shield, the horn of my salvation, and my refuge;
You are worthy of praise.

And in Psalm 71:1-3:

In you, O Lord have I taken refuge;*
Let me never be ashamed.
In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free;*
Incline your ear to me and save me.
Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe;*
You are my crag and my stronghold.

These words are particularly resonant right now as we shelter in place and so many are heroically fighting this pandemic battle. May God, our Rock, shelter us all in this weary land and world.