It has been more than a century since McAfee penned the words of this hymn, yet Christians today find them as comforting as did the people of that earlier time. We, too, need a place of rest, a place of comfort, a place where all is joy and peace.
Cleland Boyd McAfee was born in Missouri, September 25, 1866, as one of five children. He graduated from Park College in Parkville, Missouri. Cleland’s father had founded Park College in 1875. Cleland furthered his studies at Union Theological Seminary, New York.
After his studies in New York, he returned to Park College to pastor the campus church as well as direct its choir, serve as a professor of philosophy and dean. On August 10, 1892, McAfee married Harriet "Hattie" Lawson Brown; they had three children, Ruth Myrtle, Katharine Agnes, and Mildred Helen.
In 1903, while Cleland was pastoring in Chicago, tragedy struck his family. His brother Howard’s two infant daughters died from diphtheria within 24 hours of each other.
The situation was made even more difficult by the fact that his brother’s house had to be quarantined to prevent the spread of the terrifying disease. People were unable to go inside to express their condolences, and the parents were not permitted to leave the house to attend the double funeral service for the two girls.
Cleland sat up very late, praying and pondering what he could say in a sermon the following Sunday and what kind of music he could compose to bring comfort to his family and the congregation. The wonderful hymn presented in this story was the outcome of his meditation. Cleland’s daughter described how this hymn was written:
“The family was stricken with grief. My father often told us how he sat long and late thinking of what could be said in word and song on the coming Sunday…. So he wrote the little song ‘Near to the Heart of God.’ The choir learned it at the regular Saturday night rehearsal, and afterward they went to Howard McAfee’s home and sang it as they stood under the sky outside the darkened, quarantined house. It was sung again on Sunday morning at [Cleland’s] church.”
McAfee also pastored at the Lafayette Avenue Church of Brooklyn, in Brooklyn, New York and taught systematic theology at McCormick Theological Seminary from 1912 to 1930
In 1912, McAfee authored the treatise, "The Greatest English Classic: A Study of The King James Version of The Bible." He was moderator of the General Assembly of Presbyterian Church and led the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions from 1930 to 1936.
McAfee died in 1944. His wife went on to become president of Wellesley College and the first director of WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in the United State Navy.
Studylight.org, Clarke’s Commentary: Righteousness, cultivated by peace, produces tranquility of mind and permanent security.
Studylight.org, Contending for the Faith: Paul does not mean the Christian will never again in his life on earth yield to sin. He has made this fact abundantly clear. Instead, he here refers to sin as a dominant power, and he means no longer will sin be lord over the Christian. The Christian lives under the reign of another Lord now—the Lord Jesus Christ. Never again will the believer be held helplessly under sin’s sway—unless of course he wantonly turns his back on the Lord who has redeemed him. As long as he lives on earth, however, sin will continue to assault him; but he will be under Christ and by His authority be free to fight against sin’s usurped power.
Studylight.org, Clarke’s Commentary: God shows Himself to be the God of tender mercy by comforting us in all our tribulation-never leaving us a prey to anxiety, persecution, or temptation; but, by the comforts of His Spirit, bearing us up in, through, and above, all our trials and difficulties.
Studylight.org, Gann’s Commentary on the Bible: This God of ours comforts us constantly and unfailingly, not spasmodically and intermittently; and He does so in all our affliction, not just in certain kinds of affliction." Hughes, p. 12.
Enduringword.com, David Guzik: Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; for Your law is my delight: The psalmist prayed with the understanding that God’s tender mercies came to him through the Word (law) of God. By staying close to God’s Word and letting it fill his life, he also received God’s tender care.
Enduringword.com, David Guzik: When God’s people turn to Him, listen to Him, and His Word does His work in them, joy and peace are always the result. The joy is so great that even the mountains and the hills, and the trees of the field join in. The picture is clear; in His glorious work of restoration, God takes away the barren and the cursed, and brings forth beauty and fruit . . . When the LORD restores, all the work is done for His name, and for His glory. When the LORD restores, the work is secure; it is an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Studylight.org, Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible: The Christian era was ushered in with the double promise of peace and joy, the peace being prophesied by Zacharias . . . Such a glorious peace and joy are available from no other source than the life of faith in Jesus Christ. These priceless endowments of the soul are the Christian’s badge of eternal inheritance, his true credentials of heavenly citizenship, and his impregnable defense against all the tribulations and temptations of life. Having peace with God and the joy of the Spirit in his soul, the Christian is redeemed indeed.
Biblehub.com, Barnes’ Notes on the Bible: That is, they were
brought to reflect that their only security and defense was God. They were made
to feel that they could not rely on themselves, or on any human power, and that
their only trust was in God . . . And the high God their Redeemer -- The God
who is exalted over all; the true and living God. The truth was brought to
their recollection that it was He who had delivered them from bondage in Egypt,
and who had brought them out into freedom.
Studylight.org, Clarke’s Commentary: That God was their rock — They recollected in their affliction that Jehovah was their Creator, and their Father; the Rock, the Source, not only of their being, but of all their blessings; or, that He was their sole Protector . . . And the high God their Redeemer. "And the strong God the Most High, their Kinsman." That one who possessed the right of redemption; the nearest akin to Him who had forfeited His inheritance; so the word originally means, and hence it is often used for a Redeemer. The Hebrew word answers to the Greek a Savior; and is given to the Lord Jesus Christ, the strong God, the Most High, the Redeemer of a lost world.
