It is Well

Horatio Spafford, 1873

What This Song Teaches Us About God

Horatio Spafford wrote these words after his four daughters drowned in a shipwreck. He had already lost a son to illness and his business in the Great Chicago Fire. When he crossed near the place where his daughters died, he wrote: “It is well with my soul.” That is not denial. The opening line makes the point plainly: “when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll” — both joy and catastrophe lead to the same conclusion. That kind of stability only comes from a God who does not change depending on what is happening around us.

The hymn also anchors itself in the gospel before it can claim anything is well. “My sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.” Spafford’s peace rests on a specific foundation: his guilt has been dealt with completely, the resurrection is real, and Christ will return. Whatever else may be taken, those things are permanent — and that future certainty is what lets him breathe in the present.

Scripture Connections

• Philippians 4:7 — The peace of God that surpasses understanding is exactly the peace Spafford describes — a peace that does not depend on the circumstances making sense.
• Isaiah 53:5 — “By his wounds we are healed” — the middle verses of the hymn are meditating on what Christ’s suffering accomplished for us.
• 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 — The hope of resurrection and Christ’s return is what fuels the confident “even so, it is well” at the song’s end.

Clarifying the Language

“Sea billows roll” — This is a poetic way of saying waves crashing over you — overwhelming, out-of-control circumstances. Spafford is saying: even when life feels like drowning, it is well with his soul.

“The trump shall resound” — “Trump” here means trumpet, not a person. This refers to the trumpet blast described in the New Testament as the signal for Christ’s return and the resurrection of the dead.