'In Times Like These'

As my wife and I watched a recent 6:30 p.m. newscast, I thought about that beloved old song “In Times Like These.”

With unemployment rising and a trillion-dollar “stimulus package” proposed for our hard-hit U.S. economy and with Israel at war with Hamas in Gaza and with numerous other concerns on my mind, why wouldn’t lyrics from Ruth Caye Jones’ classic hymn run through my head?

Here are some words from that famous song:

“In times like these you need a Savior / In times like these you need an anchor / Be very sure, be very sure / Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!

(Chorus) “This Rock is Jesus, Yes, He's the One / This Rock is Jesus, the only One! / Be very sure, be very sure / Your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!”

Ruth Caye Jones, known as “Mother Jones,” reportedly found inspiration to write “In Times Like These” during World War II when she was moved by reading the words of 2 Timothy 3:1: “This know also that in the last days perilous times will come.” As she read those words, inspiration for the song came, and she jotted lyrics on a small notepad she had in her apron pocket.

As the mother of five children and wife of a busy pastor (a Church of the Nazarene pastor, I believe), Jones’ life was full. She never aspired to do something “great” or “famous” and had no formal music training. But God took her song and sent it around the world to bless many. When Jones watched George Beverly Shea sing her song on a Billy Graham telecast, tears came to her eyes and she said, “I can’t believe I had any part in writing this song. I just feel that God gave it to me, and I gave it to the world.” She had written 15 other songs, but “In Times Like These” became her best known.

The story goes that Jones’ old family clock on the mantel (a wedding present) had been broken, but 15 years after “In Times Like These” had been written and the clock finally repaired, Jones realized that the first four notes of her song and the first notes of the clock’s “Westminster chime” were the same. She had used some notes from a clock that chimed to accompany words to a song about “time.” Jones died in Erie, Pennsylvania, on August 18, 1972, following a short bout with cancer.

Jones wrote her acclaimed hymn during stressful World War II days, and her message remains timeless.

The first verse of “In Times Like These” affirms our need for Jesus as Savior. Without Jesus, we’ll find no safe harbor from fears, worries and “the times we live in.” Jesus, “the Cornerstone,” is our Solid Rock. As hymn writer Edward Mote wrote, “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.”

In her song, Jones says to “be very sure your anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock.” Is your faith placed totally in Christ’s death and resurrection? Are you mistakenly trusting in your good deeds to try to get into heaven or wrongfully adding your “works” to what Christ has done for you? Even older Christians need to recall these words (from the song “Rock of Ages”) penned by Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-1778): “Not the labors of my hands / Can fulfill Thy Law’s demands / Could my zeal no respite know / Could my tears forever flow / All for sin could not atone / Thou must save, and Thou alone / …In my hand no price I bring / Simply to Thy Cross I cling.”

The second verse of “In Times Like These” points to God’s written revelation to us: “In times like these you need the Bible.”

Jesus said, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4).

“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).

Jones also tells us, “In times like these, O be not idle.” Jesus said, “I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4).

When hearing news of wars and troubles, I find comfort in affirming the words found in the last verse of Ruth Caye Jones’ famous song: “In times like these I have a Savior / In times like these I have an anchor / I’m very sure, I’m very sure / My anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock!”