Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee! Let the Water and the Blood, From Thy Riven side which flow’d, Be of Sin the double Cure; Cleanse me from its guilt and pow’r.
Not the labors of my hands Can fulfill the Law's demands: Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever flow, All for Sin could not atone: Thou must save, and Thou alone.
Nothing in my hand I bring; Simply to Thy Cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for Dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Saviour, or I die!
While I draw this fleeting breath– When my eye-strings break in death– When I soar to worlds unknown– See Thee on Thy judgment Throne– Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.
Augustus Montague Toplady (1740-1778)
How is Jesus the "Rock of Ages" & What does this Title Mean?
The eighteenth century hymn, “Rock of Ages” was penned by a young man called Augustus Montague Toplady. It expresses so eloquently and powerfully the truth of the gospel as it identifies Jesus Christ as the blessed “Rock of Ages” in whom alone salvation is found. Douglas Bond in his biography of Augustus Toplady reminds us that ‘It was the Archbishop of the Church of Ireland, and husband of Irish hymn-writer Cecil Frances Alexander, who said after his wife’s death in 1895, ‘The theologian is for the educated few; the preacher is for one generation; the hymn-writer speaks an imperishable language’[i].’ How true the Archbishop’s words are. Toplady’s hymn ‘speaks an imperishable language’ because it communicates an unchanging truth.
The first verse of Toplady’s hymn appeared in a publication called the Gospel Magazine in the October edition of 1775 and then the entire hymn appeared in 1776 in the March edition of the magazine as well as in Toplady’s Psalms & Hymns that same year. It was not however, until after 1810, long after Toplady’s death, that widespread interest for this hymn grew to the extent that according to the hymnologist John Julian, ‘no other English hymn can be named which has laid so broad and firm a grasp upon the English speaking world’ (Dictionary of Hymnology).
The war between Britain and Spain known as the ‘War of Jenkin’s Ear’ began in October 1739. Augustus Montague Toplady was born in Farnham Surrey England on November 4th 1740, the year before his father, a Major in the British army, was killed in this war at the siege of Cartagena de Indias a major city and port under Spanish colonial rule, located on the northern coast of what is now Columbia in South America.
Toplady, presumably having spent his early years in Farnham, moved with his mother to London where probably at around age nine or ten he was enrolled in ‘the prestigious Westminster School’. Then in 1755 he and his mother came to live in Ireland near a place called Codymain in County Wexford. During the August of the following year, 1756, Toplady attended a meeting in a barn near to where he was staying. It was in this meeting that he came to faith in Christ while listening to a Wesleyan Methodist preacher by the name of James Morris preach the gospel.
Prior to his conversion, he had commenced his studies at Trinity College in Dublin on July 11th 1756. Graduating with his B. A. degree in the spring of 1760 at age nineteen, he and his mother returned to England that same year. Desiring to serve God and follow a calling in the Church of England, Augustus Montague Toplady was ordained as a deacon in the Church on June 5th 1762 and then as a priest on June 16th 1764. Unlike many of the unbelieving clergy of that day, Toplady was not only converted, but a young man of conviction. He truly believed in the thirty nine articles and liturgy of the Anglican Church. His first appointment following his ordination in 1762 was as a curate in the village of Blagdon, Somerset England.
One day, so the story goes, during his months there when travelling through the Burrington Combe limestone gorge on the north side of the Mendip hills in North Somerset near the village of Burrington he got caught in a thunder storm causing him to take shelter in the cleft of a rock. It is said that from this experience he was inspired to write his famous hymn.
There is a high fissure in the limestone of Burrington Combe which bears a plaque that states:
ROCK OF AGES THIS ROCK DERIVES ITS NAME FROM THE WELL KNOWN HYMN WRITTEN ABOUT 1762 BY THE REV A M TOPLADY WHO WAS INSPIRED WHILST SHELTERING IN THIS CLEFT DURING A STORM Inscribed 1951
The difficulty with this story, which may well be correct, is that Toplady, it seems, left no record of it in his writings. The source of its telling comes from another. Douglas Bond states: ‘The story appeared in the London Times in the late nineteenth century in an account given by Sir William Henry Wills, landowner in Blagdon’. In his account this gentleman stated that ‘taking shelter between two massive pillars of our native limestone, he penned the hymn, Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me’[ii]. We of course must allow for the possibility that Toplady told the story to others himself at the time and that it was passed on in this way. But then some have went even further with the story; apparently he not only wrote the hymn while sheltering during the time of the storm, but that he did so on a ‘playing card’ which he found on the ground. As with many stories, they grow in the telling and with the embellishment of details a story ends up being turned into ‘historical fiction’; interesting to read, but without basis in reality.
At any rate, some one hundred and thirty three hymns and poems are attributed to Augustus Toplady which is quite remarkable when you consider that he died at the relatively young age of thirty seven on Tuesday August 11th 1778 from tuberculosis. He never married, yet in those short years of his life, he left the legacy of one of the greatest hymns ever written, “Rock of Ages” and irrespective of the circumstances that inspired it, this hymn has been sung and appreciated for over two and half centuries by untold numbers of people because its truth is timeless and its words so meaningful to those whose hearts have been touched by God to understand their sinfulness and need for Christ.
It is in Isaiah 26 v 4 that we read about the “Rock of Ages”. The New King James translation reads:
‘Trust in the Lord forever, For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength’.
But the words ‘everlasting strength’ can equally be translated ‘Rock of Ages’ as the following rendering shows:
Confide ye in Jehovah forever; For in Jah, Jehovah, is the Rock of Ages’ (Darby Translation).
Or the New International Version says:
‘Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal’[iii].
This is simply different ways of saying or conveying the same truth from the Hebrew language in which the Old Testament was written. The LORD is being identified as the unfailing strength and secure refuge of His people, that is, all who believe and trust in Him.
The God of Israel is identified in the Old Testament as ‘the Rock’. He is ‘the Rock of Israel’ (2 Sam 23:3) and in Deuteronomy 32 vs 3-4 we read:
‘For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He’.
But Toplady in his hymn rightly identifies Jesus as the “Rock of Ages”. According to Toplady the ‘Rock of Ages’ was ‘cleft for me’ and it was from His ‘riven side’ that ‘the water and the blood… flowed’. This referring to the outcome of the spear wound that pierced the side of the Lord Jesus as His lifeless body hung on the Cross. In John 19 vs 33 & 34 we read: ‘But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out’. Toplady explains the significance of this in the final two lines of his first verse:
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee! Let the Water and the Blood, From Thy Riven side which flow’d, Be of Sin the double Cure; Cleanse me from its guilt and pow’r.
Here are two reasons why Jesus is rightly identified as the “Rock of Ages”:
One,He is a DIVINE Person. He is ‘Jehovah’ or ‘LORD’ as His Name JESUS demonstrates. It means ‘Jehovah is Saviour’ or ‘the salvation of the LORD’. Many Jewish boys bore the name Yeshua, the Hebrew form of the name Jesus, but only one fulfilled specifically and uniquely its meaning. The angel said to Joseph concerning His birth: “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt 1:21) and then Matthew, the gospel writer who records the above detail states:
‘So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us”.’ (Matt 1:22-23-Isa 7:14).
Not merely God’s presence with humans, but God in the person of the Son revealed in flesh and in time. Begotten of the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, He was born as a lowly infant, yet possessing all the attributes of deity. He was truly “God with us”. This is the wonder and mystery of the incarnation.
Not only then is He a divine person, but, He is also specifically IDENTIFIED as the Rock who Accompanied Israel on their journeys after their deliverance from Egypt. In 1 Corinthians 10 v 4 as the apostle Paul reflects on their experience, he writes: ‘And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ’. Paul has in mind Exodus 17 vs 1-7, the time when Israel camped at a place called Rephidim in the wilderness and the LORD provided water from the rock at Horeb after Moses smote, as instructed, the rock face with the rod of God which was previously used to smite the Nile River in judgment. Water flowed in abundance from the smitten rock for the people and livestock to drink. The LORD said to Moses: “Go on before the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel. Also take in your hand your rod with which you struck the river, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it that the people may drink” (Exo 17:5-6). The Apostle Paul’s unusual statement in 1 Corinthians 10 v 4 refers to what the actual water from the physical rock symbolized and who the physical rock itself represented. Paul points us to the ultimate source of the miraculous supply of water that day – the Messiah! He, the Rock of His people was there in person at Horeb standing before Moses, though unseen. As the physical rock represented Him, so the physical water and the refreshment it provided symbolized the spiritual drink, that is, the spiritual blessings and refreshment the Messiah gives which most of that vast company that came out of Egypt never truly understood or appreciated because of their unbelief. Like many today, in their selfishness and ingratitude they only craved the satisfying of their physical appetite. What’s more, the smiting of the rock that day had immense significance as it also symbolized an event yet to take place in the future. It indicated and pointed forward to the time when the Messiah in human form would be Himself smitten with the rod of divine justice on the Cross at Calvary to provide and assure to us the blessing of spiritual and eternal salvation.
So there is no question according to the Biblical record that Jesus is the “Rock of Ages”.
The challenge of this message then is – Am I secure in the Rock of Ages? Is HE the sure foundation of my faith, life & eternity? Am I cleansed by His blood, saved by His power and safe from judgment in Him?
In Isaiah 26 vs 1-18 we discover that God’s Delivered People Israel will sing in a future day a song of thanksgiving that celebrates how the LORD has Saved them (vs 1-6) and which also expresses how they have Waited for Him to do so (vs 7-18). This will be fulfilled when the kingdom of their Messiah comes. God’s covenant people and a liberated world will rejoice as He comes to reign in peace and righteousness. The first six verses of Isaiah 26 can be summarized as follows:
The LORD is the Joy of His People – v 1a The LORD is the Saviour of His People – v 1b The LORD is the Justifier of His People – v 2 The LORD is the Refuge of His People – vs 3-4 The LORD is the Vindicator of His People – vs 5-6
Consider the following two things as we focus on Him who is the “Rock of Ages”:
1. THE ROCK OF AGES – HIS ETERNITY 2. THE ROCK OF AGES – HIS STRENGTH
1. THE ROCK OF AGES – HIS ETERNITY As the "Rock of Ages" →He is the Everlasting LORD In Exodus 3 v 14 the LORD tells Moses that His name is: “I AM”. In these simple, yet profound words the LORD identifies Himself as the ever existing LORD of eternity and history. We use the expression “I am” as a form of personal identification with an accompanying statement – “I am going to the shop” or “I am living in Ireland”, but when God identifies Himself in this way, He is conveying the truth of who He is, the fact of His eternal person and the unchanging reality of His dynamic presence about to be revealed in the Exodus from Egypt. What’s more, Jesus identified Himself in the same way! He stated to a hostile audience: “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58) and on seven different occasions He so identified Himself with an accompanying statement that could only be true if He is God; for example He said: “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35), “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12), “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). This again confirms that Jesus is also Jehovah, the “Rock of Ages”. As the Bible teaches us, there are three persons in one Godhead. They are Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are all equally and eternally divine and yet, individually identified. This is why we can say, God the Father is LORD, and Jesus His Son is LORD. Jesus identified Himself as “I AM” while also speaking of God as His Father and promising the coming of the Holy Spirit. So, the significance of this title, “I AM” is that the ever existing LORD is sovereign over the world, time and history and manifests His presence and glory on earth at a time and in a way of His choosing. The story of Creation and the Exodus are demonstration of these realities, as is the first coming of Christ and as will be His second coming when He returns to establish His kingdom.
As we think of God’s who is eternal and all powerful, we are surely reminded of our own frailty and mortality. Moses penned these words in Psalm 90 vs 1-6:
1 Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. 3 You turn man to destruction, And say, “Return, O children of men.” 4 For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night. 5 You carry them away like a flood; They are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass which grows up: 6 In the morning it flourishes and grows up; In the evening it is cut down and withers.
How weak and transient we are! Those who make the most noise today will soon lie silent in the dust and in a few years and like everyone else, will quickly be forgotten.
The everlasting LORD, the “Rock of Ages” is Unchanging & Unchangeableas well as Enduring & Dependable. Hebrews 13 v 8 says: ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever’. What an assurance in a changing and uncertain world. This is why the call is: ‘Trust in the LORD forever’ (Isa 26:4). Therefore, as the “Rock of Ages”, He is not only the Everlasting LORD, but it is also the case that
→He is the Sure Confidence of All Who Trust in Him He gives the Assurance of Peace to the Unwavering Mind. Isaiah 26 v 3 says:
‘You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You’.
He is also, the Foundation of Support to the Trusting Heart. Again, Isaiah 26 v 4 says: ‘Trust in the Lord forever, For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength’.
He Imparts COMPLETEPEACE and affords COMPLETE CONFIDENCE to those who TRUST in Him. To ‘trust in the LORD forever’, is to trust in Him always, that is at all times and in all circumstances. He won’t let anyone down who does so, no matter how it may look this side of eternity.
A little while back my wife and I enjoyed a holiday in a hired motorhome. It had the benefit of an electrically powered drop down bed. A convenient and space saving feature. The first time we used it we were a little hesitant climbing unto it wondering whether the bed really had the ability to hold up two adults. Suspended from above, on the side of the bed it read ‘maximum load 200 kg’ so we were safe enough if this was correct and reliable information. The source of our confidence had to be in the fact that such a product would have been tried and tested to fulfil such a claim and make it fit for purpose. I can testify that it worked! This is but a simple illustration, but we can be sure of this, that the “Rock of Ages” is a tried and tested Saviour who has the ability to save and keep all who put their confidence in Him.
2. THE ROCK OF AGES – HIS STRENGTH As we consider His almighty strength, we are reminded of →His Power to Endure Already it has been noted that God is enduring as He continues undiminished and unaffected by time ever remaining the same. Christ, however demonstrated His power to endure in the greatest possible way for He endured the Cross. He faced the onslaught of Satan and men at the Cross and on the Cross was ‘laid upon Him the iniquity of us all’ (Isa 53:6). But He was victorious through, and triumphed over it all. Hebrews 12 v 2 says: ‘Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’. Christ endured all that the Cross meant for Him as He looked to its ultimate outcome. He was able to endure because of who He is, the “Rock of Ages”. In His strength He endured the rejection of men and every insult hurled at Him as well as the physical violence He experienced at their brutal hands, and in His Sinlessness, He endured the awful stroke from the ‘rod’ of justice laid upon Him from God as He took the place of sinners.
Toplady’s hymn says ‘Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee’. In Isaiah 48 v 21 we read:
‘And they did not thirst When He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them; He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out’.
The rock at Horeb was smitten by the rod in the hand of Moses, but miraculously split by the power of God (Exo 17:6). This event pointed forward to the Lord Jesus Christ who would become the Smitten Rock in His Experience on the Cross. The heart of the gospel is that God smote His Son instead of us. Says Toplady: ‘Rock of Ages cleft for me’. He bore the awful force of divine justice and suffered the punishment our sins deserve from the hand of God who is holy. The rebellious complaining Israelites deserved to be smitten by the ‘rod’ of God’s justice that day at Rephidim in the wilderness, but instead God smote the rock. So it was at Calvary, instead of us, God smote His beloved Son, the blessed “Rock of Ages” and as the smitten one it was from His riven side pierced by the Roman soldier’s spear that the water and the blood flowed immediately forth, proof of His life laid down sacrificially through which we can know deliverance from the guilt and power of sin as Toplady says:
Let the water and the blood, From Thy riven side which flow’d, Be of sin the double cure, Save me from its guilt and pow’r.
There was also another occasion in Israel’s history when water was needed. This time at a place called Kadesh some 40 years later (Numbers 20:10-13). The LORD told Moses to speak to the rock only and water would come forth, but Moses sadly disobeyed and in anger smote the rock twice with the rod. Despite his failure water gushed forth to supply and refresh the needy Israelites. Why would the LORD tell Moses to speak only to the rock on this repeat occasion? Why did it matter one way or the other? The LORD did so and it mattered because of who and what the rock signified. God was ‘illustrating’ the future on both occasions and pointing to the “Rock of Ages” who was ultimately smitten once only on the Cross for our salvation, but now, raised from the dead and ascended back to heaven, He is the Exalted Rock at His Father’s Right Hand.
In Exodus 17 v 6 ‘the rock at Horeb’ refers likely to a specific mass of rock protruding from the ground or even possibly a huge boulder sitting on the ground, while in Numbers 20 v 8, a different Hebrew word suggests an elevated rock face visible above the people. The simple point is, the “Rock of Ages” was smitten once only and now is the exalted one at God’s right hand.
On both occasions abundant water came forth. The lesson is this, because of the Cross of Christ and because of His place at God’s right hand the ‘waters’ of eternal life flow forth from His person to thirsty and dying sinners such as we are. The Lord Jesus is the Source of eternal Life. He Gives ‘the Water of Life’and the blessing of eternal salvation to all who believe in Him. And, it is because of His sacrificial and sin bearing work on the Cross that we can know cleansing from sins defilement, the forgiveness of our sins and the enjoyment of peace with God. Consider Toplady’s second and third verses:
Not the labors of my hands Can fulfill the Law's demands: Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever flow, All for Sin could not atone: Thou must save, and Thou alone.
Nothing in my hand I bring; Simply to Thy Cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for Dress; Helpless, look to Thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Saviour, or I die!
To be cleansed, ‘clothed’ and saved by the “Rock of Ages” is everything. To have received the gift of eternal life by faith assures us that we will never perish (John 3:16). Without eternal life we face the reality of eternal death, which means separation from God and all that is good forever. It is to be abandoned in the unending reality of righteous wrath. The Bible says that ‘the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom 6:23).
But not only has the “Rock of Ages” power to endure, we think too of →His Power to Save He has the power to saveall who believe in Him for He is the Rock of Salvation. He saved His ancient people Israel from the bondage of Egypt by His mighty power (Deut 32:15; Psa 78:35), He saved His servant David from death (2 Sam 22:47; Psa 18:46; Psa 89:26) and by His power He saves His people forever (Jn 3:16; Heb 7:25). All who put their trust in Him have the assurance of present, real and inner peace as well as an unshakable and certain hope for eternity. Moreover, He is the Rock of Strength and because He is so, He has the power to keep all who trust in Him. In Him is “everlasting strength” and therefore we can have total confidence that the "Rock of Ages" is ever the Strength of His People, the Security of His People and the Support of His People.
Psalm 61 v 2 says: "From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I".
Psalm 18 v 2 says: “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold".
Psalm 62 v 7 says: “In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength, And my refuge, is in God”.
May you who read or listen to this message know personally the one who is, the “Rock of Ages”, the Lord Jesus Christ and experience the peace He gives and the confidence He inspires. Mid the clamour and strife of this world there is nothing greater than knowing the one who promises: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb 13:5). May you be able to sing as you think of your exit from this world the truth of Toplady’s poignant words:
While I draw this fleeting breath– When my eye-strings break in death– When I soar to worlds unknown– See Thee on Thy judgment Throne– Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee.
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).