Growing up in a traditional church setting I sang a hymn for years before realizing anything about what it was saying. The famous old hymn attests:

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name

I knew it was about Jesus, but the words “sweetest frame” always puzzled me. What did Edward Mote mean when he penned these words in 1834? For a long time I assumed he was talking about a pretty girl. It seemed my head was always turned toward the “sweetest frame” whenever I walked out my front door. My hope was often found in the desire for a relationship greater than all other relationships. I wanted to be married, but to whom would I be married? When I sang the hymn I was loudly proclaiming that who ever I married, they would have to believe in Jesus. After I got married the old hymn lost a layer of meaning for me because now that “sweetest frame” shared life with me. I tried to sing it simply as a reminder to be on guard against assaults on our marriage, but still it meant less to me than before.

Later I began to realize another meaning to “sweetest frame.” A frame is also a structure, like the frame of a house being built. I find it fun to walk through houses as they are being framed. Where will the living room , kitchen, and bathroom be? Is that a bedroom or a dining room? Guessing what room is what and imaging what this house will be when it is completed is great fun for me. What are the hopes for the future occupant of the house? Maybe a single person who is doing well in their first job hopes this will be the house where they will begin a family? Maybe a husband and wife living in an apartment hopes this will be the house where they will expand their family? A lot of hopes go into this frame.

In our lives what are the frames in which we hope? There are physical frames such as a house. We hope for comfort and safety. There are political frames such as our American economy. We hope for growth and stability. There are financial frames such as 401k or Roth IRA. We hope for longevity and security. There are even religious frames. We hope in our sports team or we hope in our personal view of God.

The old definition of frame that Mote used really means “an emotional state” - what we might know as a “frame of mind.” The word is related to frame in the sense of foundation. My frame of mind toward my physical, political, financial, relational or religious status could be great. It could be terrible. I may be emotionally either high or low. In my mind I find emotional frames much like I find physical frames in my city.

Now I have a new appreciation of the hymn that will help me as long as I am alive. I dare not trust the “sweetest frame” but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. All these framed up houses (physical, political, relational, etc.) are not safe to lean my hope against. My hope must lean on Jesus. Jesus is my hope for comfort, safety, growth, and stability. Jesus is my hope for longevity and security. Jesus is my only hope for knowing God. My relationship to Him is the relationship greater than all other relationships, because when I set my hope on Christ all my other hopes will be met. He alone is the solid rock on which I stand because he is the Creator and Redeemer of the world. All other ground is sinking sand.

In Him,

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