It should come as no surprise that many of our most beloved hymns were written as a result of some extremely painful experience. We have examples of that with “It Is Well with My Soul” (four daughters lost in a ship sinking), “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go” (a fiancé who backed out), “Just As I Am” (a bed-ridden invalid), “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” (a drowning just before a wedding), and “Now Thank We All Our God” (millions of deaths during Germany’s 17th century Thirty Years’ War). In moments of our lives that are most emotionally powerful, even devastating, it’s natural that the human heart finds strength in the beauty of poetry wedded to music. That’s probably one of the main attractions to the biblical Psalms, which are, as Calvin called them, “the anatomy of the soul.”
One of those examples of hymns that came from tragedies is the Swedish hymn, “Day by Day and with Each Passing Moment.” Carolina (“Lina,” pronounced Lie-nah) Wilhelmina Sandell Berg (1832-1903) wrote this text in 1865 at the age of 26, several years after she experienced a terrible tragedy. She had been with her father, Jonas, a Lutheran pastor, on board a ship while crossing Lake Vättern in Sweden. Suddenly the ship lurched, and before her eyes her father was thrown overboard and drowned. Lina had written hymns before, but after this calamity, she poured out her broken heart in an on-going stream of beautiful songs. She grew to become Sweden’s most celebrated author of gospel hymns, and wrote so many that she has often been called “the Fanny Crosby of Sweden.” Her more than 600 hymns also included “Children of the Heavenly Father” and had a mighty influence on the revival that swept across Scandinavia after 1850.
She grew up in the rectory at Fröderyd parish in the Diocese of Växjö in Småland, Sweden. It is a lovely little clearing in the forest surrounded by lakes, farms and woodlands. It reminds one of northern Minnesota. The soil is rocky and difficult so it is no surprise many Swedish emigrants to America came from this province. Lina was a precocious child. Her father knew from the beginning that she would be a help to him in his old age as he taught her the Bible, hymns and her catechism. She was a quick study, learning English and German, the required curriculum of a young girl in her class. Very devout, she lived her entire life deep in the Scriptures. Her hymns are filled with biblical references.
Lina greatly loved and admired her father. Since she was a frail youngster, she generally preferred to be with him in his study rather than with comrades outdoors. When Lina was just 12 years of age, she had an experience that greatly shaped her entire life. At an early age she had been stricken with a partial paralysis that confined her to bed much of the time. Though the physicians considered her chance for a complete recovery hopeless, her parents always believed that God would in time make her well again. One Sunday morning, while her parents were in church, Lina began reading the Bible and praying earnestly. When her parents returned, they were amazed to find her dressed and walking freely. After this experience of physical healing, Lina began to write verses expressing her gratitude and love for God and published her first book of spiritual poetry when she was 16. All of her hymns reflect a tender, childlike trust in her Savior, and a deep sense of His abiding presence in her life.
She was married in 1867 to wholesale merchant and future member of the Swedish Parliament, Oscar Berg (1839–1903). They established their residence in Stockholm. Their marriage was a happy one, though their only child died at birth. Sandell was friends with and mentored by member of Parliament, Thor Hartwig Odencrants. In 1892, Lina became ill with typhoid fever. She died in 1903 at the age of 71 and was buried at Solna Church in greater Stockholm. Her husband died due to complications caused by diabetes in October that same year. There is a statue of her at North Park University in Chicago, Illinois.
“Day by Day, and with Each Passing Moment” is probably the second most beloved of Lina’s work. She also wrote the well-known hymn, “Children of the Heavenly Father.” “Day by Day” is based on Deuteronomy 33:25, “As thy day is, so shall thy strength be.” Its Swedish name is “Blott en dag” (its first three words), meaning “Just one day” or “Just another day.” In Sweden and Finland, it is often sung at funerals. This is among the hymns of hers which were brought to America by Swedish immigrants. It was written between the time of her father’s drowning and her mother’s death.
Sandell’s hymns reflect a simple, child-like trust in the Savior with a deep sense of His abiding presence. She and her husband founded a sailor’s mission in Sweden. In spite of her frail body, she lived to be 71 years of age and died at Stockholm, Sweden, on July 27, 1903. The English translation was made in 1921 by Andrew L. Skoog (1854-1934). The son of a tailor whose family had migrated from Sweden to the United States when he was only 13, he became a publisher, musician, and hymnbook editor for publications of the Evangelical Covenant Church. His only formal music training was twelve lessons on a melodeon. He was organist, choir director, and Sunday School superintendent in Swedish Tabernacle, Minneapolis, from 1886 to 1916.
When Sandell originally wrote “Day by Day,” she wrote in the first stanza, “Han som bär for meg en moders hjärte” (He who bore for me a mother’s heart). Almost from the first, the editors changed it to father. Some might find it a little odd. Lina was not saying God was father or mother, but that He acted like a mother in giving us sustenance for each day. In Scandinavia they have restored that, but some of the newest American versions have neither mother or father in order to avoid the issue altogether. Such can be the ironies of political correctness! The Swedish version has several more stanzas, but these three appear to be the ones used around the world. The hymn has become especially popular after the Billy Graham team began to use it in their crusade meetings. Many of us can remember hearing this sung in that setting by George Beverly Shea.
Stanza 1 tells us to trust in God’s kindness and presence wherever we go. He is the most loving Father in the universe. Our Father has promised His people strength to meet their trials in this life (2 Corinthians 12:9). He assures us that we need not be afraid or dismayed because He will guide us as long as we seek to do His will (Joshua 1:9). Therefore, we can look to Him to give us day by day what He deems best for the renewing of our spirits (2 Corinthians 4:16).
Day by day and with each passing moment,
Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure
Gives unto each day what He deems best–
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.
Stanza 2 tells us to trust in God’s protection and pledge to provide for our needs. God has promised that He will be with us, and that out of His mercy He might provide protection (Isaiah 41:10). Therefore, we can be confident that He does care for us (1 Peter 5:7). Because He cares for us, He will protect us and provide us with strength to meet whatever challenges our days bring us (Deuteronomy 33:24).
Ev’ry day the Lord Himself is near me,
With a special mercy for each hour;
All my cares He gladly bears and cheers me,
He whose name is Counselor and Pow’r.
The protection of His child and treasure
Is a charge that on Himself He laid:
“As your days, your strength shall be in measure,”
This the pledge to me He made.
Stanza 3 tells us to trust in God’s care and concern for us as our Father, by actually making that request directly to Him. We are most certainly going to experience trials and tribulations, toils and troubles, in this life (James 1:2-12). However, just as any good father is concerned about his children, so we can know that our heavenly Father cares enough about us to give us good things to help us (Matthew 7:7-12). Thus, we can trust in Him to lead us, day by day, on our journey to the promised land where we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psalm 23:1-6).
Help me then in ev’ry tribulation
So to trust Your promises, O Lord,
That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation
Offered me within Your holy Word.
Help me, Lord, when, toil and trouble meeting,
E’er to take, as from a father’s hand,
One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,
Till I reach the promised land.
Many people are apprehensive about the future, wondering when some health problems or financial difficulties may strike. Even God’s people never know when times of sorrow or difficulty may occur. But those who are truly His children born again through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, find strength to cope with the challenges and difficulties of today by trusting in God, and they can also leave tomorrow to the Lord. Therefore, we can express a deep and peaceful trust in the Lord as we ask Him for His help “Day By Day.”
Sandell’s popularity owed much to the performances of Oscar Ahnfelt (1813-1882), a pietist who set many of her verses to music. With his four daughters, he played his guitar and sang her hymns throughout Scandinavia. He was a singer, composer, and music publisher, and the composer of this tune for Lina’s hymn. Of him she once said, “Ahnfelt has sung my songs into the hearts of the people.” The “Swedish Nightingale,” Jenny Lind (1820-1887), also promoted Sandell’s hymns by singing them in concert and financing their publication. Lind was one of the most highly regarded singers of the 19th century. Her life’s story is a most impressive one, worthy of retelling in detail in some other setting than this. She performed in soprano roles in opera in Sweden and across Europe, and undertook an extraordinarily successful popular concert tour of the United States beginning in 1850.
Lind became famous after her performance in “Der Freischütz in Sweden in 1838. Within a few years, she had suffered vocal damage, but the singing teacher Manuel García saved her voice. She was in great demand in opera roles throughout Sweden and northern Europe during the 1840s, and was closely associated with Felix Mendelssohn. After two acclaimed seasons in London, she announced her retirement from opera at the age of 29. In 1850, Lind went to the United States at the invitation of the showman P. T. Barnum. She gave 93 large-scale concerts for him and then continued to tour under her own management. She earned more than $350,000 (equivalent to $12,818,400 in 2023) from these concerts, donating the proceeds to charities, principally the endowment of free schools in Sweden. With her new husband, Otto Goldschmidt, she returned to Europe in 1852, where she had three children and gave occasional concerts over the next three decades, settling in England in 1855. From 1882, for some years, she was a professor of singing at the Royal College of Music in London.
It was in the midst of the Rosenius movement that Lina Sandell became known to her countrymen as a great songwriter. Rosenius and Ahnfelt encountered much persecution in their evangelical efforts. King Karl XV, ruler of the united kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, was petitioned to forbid Ahnfelt’s preaching and singing. The monarch wisely refused to do so until he had had an opportunity to hear the “spiritual troubadour.” Ahnfelt was commanded to appear at the royal palace. Being considerably perturbed in mind as to what he should sing to the king, he besought Lina Sandell to write a hymn for the occasion. She was equal to the task and within a few days the song was ready. With his guitar under his arm and the hymn in his pocket, Ahnfelt went to the palace and sang:
Who is it that knocketh upon your heart’s door
In peaceful eve?
Who is it that brings to the wounded and sore
The balm that can heal and relieve?
Your heart is still restless, it findeth no peace
In earth’s pleasures;
Your soul is still yearning, it seeketh release
To rise to the heavenly treasures.
The king listened with tears in his eyes. When Ahnfelt had finished, the monarch gripped him by the hand and exclaimed, “You may sing as much as you like in both of my kingdoms!”
Here is a link to the hymn sung with gentle accompaniment and with gentle scenery.