Blessed Assurance
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What the hymn says
This hymn expresses a deep sense of settled joy and confidence. The stanzas describe a daily experience of peace, devotion, and spiritual satisfaction. Each part highlights the feeling of being watched over and cared for, leading naturally into a refrain of constant praise. The song holds together through its steady focus on trust, daily surrender, and a joyful anticipation of eternal rest.
The words were written by a prolific blind poet who composed thousands of hymns during her lifetime. She wrote them after hearing a melody played by a friend who asked what the tune seemed to say, prompting an immediate poetic response. Knowing her story adds depth to lines about spiritual sight and inner vision, showing how someone living without physical sight found a vibrant inner clarity.
The story behind it
The words were written by Fanny Crosby and set to music by Phoebe Knapp in eighteen seventy-three. Published soon after, the hymn quickly found a permanent home in congregational singing across various churches. Its upbeat rhythm and memorable refrain helped it spread rapidly through nineteenth-century revival meetings and hymnals.
Four things to notice
- Notice the opening declaration of belonging and the feeling of inner certainty.
- Observe how the lines picture a daily walk of devotion and quiet surrender.
- Pay attention to the refrain that turns each stanza into an act of joyful praise.
- Consider the final picture of a soul wrapped in goodness and lost in love.
The text
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchased of God,
Born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Saviour all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Saviour all the day long.
Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight.
Angels descending, bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love.
Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Saviour am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with his goodness, lost in his love.
Text: The Army and Navy Hymnal (1920), no. 212, headed “Fanny J. Crosby, 1820-1915 / Mrs. Joseph F. Knapp, 1873” — proofread transcription of the scanned page on Wikisource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Army_and_Navy_Hymnal/Hymns/Blessed_Assurance,_Jesus_Is_Mine . Cross-checked against hymnary.org/text/blessed_assurance_jesus_is_mine, which carries the same three stanzas and refrain (spelling differs only where that edition modernises “Saviour” and “purchased”).
Public domain worldwide. Words by Fanny Crosby and music by Phoebe Palmer Knapp, both published in 1873; the 1920 hymnal printing used here is itself out of copyright. Free to copy, print and reprint.
Scriptures behind the words
Verses on assurance and peace with God — printed verbatim from the public-domain King James Version and World English Bible.
- Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
- Hebrews 10:23
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
- Philippians 4:4
Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
- John 14:27
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
- Psalms 40:1
I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
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