How Firm a Foundation -- Robert Keene?

This composer wanted to be anonymous – almost. He provided only one letter of his name to associate with the prose he recorded, and then his associate John Rippon published a collection that included this one called “How Firm a Foundation”. (How might this look, physically – like a basement under construction? [see picture])We can be sure this composer was a Bible reader or hearer, given what he wrote, and not from just a single passage of the scriptures, but in fact several. What made him write is at least partially apparent then, based upon what we know he must have been contemplating as he read. Much of his work sounds like it’s from God in first-person, giving us a clue as to why his own authorship was apparently deemphasized. He wanted the worshipper’s gaze to be directed vertically, not horizontally.

Robert Keene was a friend and associate of John Rippon in 18^th Century England, where his ministry of music and Rippon’s pastoring of the London-based Carter Lane Baptist Church coincided. It was there that Rippon collected and published a number of hymns (called Rippon’s Selections) in 1787. Among this volume’s mix of songs was “How Firm…”, with the letter ‘K’ printed in the spot normally reserved for the composer’s name. Other versions showed ‘Kn’ or ‘Keen’, lending historians a strong clue that Rippon’s own church’s music minister – Robert Keene – was in fact the song’s creator. What were Keene’s thoughts surrounding 1787 and the development of the hymn? One senses by reading the stanzas that Keene must have heard a lot of bible verses, or been reading them for himself, for at least four of the original seven verses are paraphrases of what God Himself promises to believers. Had the messages been Rippon’s delivered from the pulpit, straight from the books of Isaiah, 2 Corinthians, and Hebrews, that Keene heard and which were burned into his conscience? It’s not hard to imagine that Rippon and Keene, as servants of a church filled with people in all kinds of circumstances – difficult ones – would also be looking for messages of hope and encouragement to this body. The first verse’s ‘ye saints’ hint that this church’s members could have been the hymn’s earliest audience.  With the focus turned toward the audience, and most of the hymn’s poetry being recreations of the Holy One’s words, perhaps Keene concluded that his own name need not necessarily be attached to the song. ‘K’ was sufficient, and he was, after all, just like the other hearers of these seven verses – a mortal who was striving, with failings, to survive and ascend someday.

Was it an accident that Keene’s words drew promises from God across hundreds of years? From Isaiah to Paul and the Hebrews author, there were some seven or eight centuries of difference, for God to waver if He chose. It must have seemed like He had at times, frankly, for those who suffered in exile or worse. But notice what He says about His foundation. It’s certain, but not without ‘deep waters’, ‘fiery trials’, ‘old age’, and ‘foes’. For me, the first few times I have troubles, I shriek in pain and then I doubt Him. If I could have His eyes, how would this look over and over again? ‘Tell ‘em again’ He might say, each time the created cry out to the Creator. Sound familiar? That’s what we call ‘Bible’. Hmmm, so that’s why I have it.

The following website has all 7 verses for the song: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/h/o/w/howfirm.htm

See more information on the song discussed above in A Treasury of Hymn Stories, by Amos R. Wells, Baker Book House Company, 1945; The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990; 101 Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1982;and Then Sings My Soul – 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories, Robert J. Morgan, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.