1
When you walk through the waters,
I will be with you;
and pass through the rivers,
I will be by.
The waves and the currents
shall not overwhelm you;
my hand reaches down,
and my presence is nigh.
Chorus
But now says the Lord
who created his people,
now says the Lord
who has formed us from dust:
“Do not fear, it is I
who forever redeems you.
I have called you by name,
and in me you may trust.”
2
When you stand in the fire
it shall not consume you,
when flames clothe the mountains
and come on the wind.
Though homes turn to ashes,
my word lives forever;
my grace is the household
for all who have sinned.
(Chorus)
3
Though the earth move beneath you,
your footing is steady;
though mountains fall down
and dash into the sea.
My angels shall guard you;
their hands, they will bear you
away from the stone,
they will bear you to me.
(Chorus)
4
When the four winds are blowing
from all the four corners,
and all the four angels
withhold them no more,
when the earth and the forest
and ocean are seething,
I shall breathe through the storm,
“All is well, evermore.”
(Chorus)
Paul Willis is a professor of English at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, where he teaches British Renaissance literature and creative writing. His poems have been featured on Verse Daily (www.versedaily.org) and on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac, and he served as poet laureate of Santa Barbara from 2011–2013.