One of the hymns which has been going through my mind recently has been Rock of Ages, cleft for me (StF 434) written by Augustus Toplady. I was surprised to find it is still in our recent hymn book and was quite prepared for it to have been left out.
One saying is that Augustus wrote the hymn when he was sheltering from a storm in a rocky gorge Burrington Combe on the edge of the Mendips in Somerset. If you do get a chance to visit the site, and there is a plaque telling you about it on the wall, you will be amazed that anyone could fit into the very small space. The story goes that because he didn’t have a notebook with him he found a playing card on the ground and wrote the hymn on the back of it. As I come from Somerset I do like this saying and have visited the spot many times.
Another saying goes that this hymn was written at the end of an evening of a heated discussion between Charles Wesley and Augustus Toplady. After they had both retired to their rooms Augustus wrote this hymn and Charles wrote Jesu, lover of my soul.
It is now generally thought that it was written after a sermon based on Numbers 20:11 where Moses struck the rock in the desert for water for the people of Israel. There is also a reference to Exodus 33:22 where Moses hid in the cleft of a rock so that he wouldn’t see the Lord’s face as he passed by.
Whatever you believe it is a fine hymn, which isn’t sung very often. It seems to have quite outdated language for today, although on reading it again is very profound.
Rock of Ages, cleft for me
Let me hide myself in thee.