Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

The story of this hymn

The refrain came first. In 1887 Anthony Showalter, a music teacher, opened letters from two former pupils, each writing that his wife had died. He answered both with the words of Deuteronomy 33:27 — 'underneath are the everlasting arms' — then, struck by the phrase, set it to music and asked Elisha Hoffman, a Pennsylvania-born minister who wrote some two thousand hymns, to supply the verses. A hymn born from two condolence letters has comforted the bereaved ever since.

Where it sits in the service

A graveside favourite above all: the swaying refrain carries a crowd through the lowering of the coffin, and in many South African services the singing simply continues while the grave is filled. It also lifts the mood after tributes. Print the refrain once, after the first verse, with a note that it repeats after every verse — regulars sing from memory, but visitors follow the page.

In the programme, list it in the order of service as “Hymn — Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” with the leader or choir named beside it.

How it is actually sung

Warm, rhythmic and easy — the refrain does most of the work and the congregation joins it immediately, even on first hearing. Excellent at a homegoing or a celebration of life, and it holds up unaccompanied, which makes it one of the few hymns here that genuinely works at a graveside with no instrument. Four verses, though the refrain alone will carry a procession.

Printing the words

Public domain. Print the refrain with each verse; it is sung after every one and congregations flip pages looking for it.

This is practical guidance rather than legal advice. Reproduction rights vary by territory, by hymnal edition and by the licence your church holds — the church office is the right place to ask, and they answer this question often.