The hymn I selected from Sing Praise for 17 November was ‘Safe in the shadow of the Lord’ by Timothy Dudley-Smith. It’s based on Psalm 91, which is traditionally used at Compline (night prayer) as it speaks of trust in God at the end of the day. The gentle tune by Norman Warren is also well suited to the end-of-the-day feel of the hymn.
The third verse is most specific about this: ‘From fears and phantoms of the night, from foes about my way, I trust in him, I trust in him, by darkness as by day’. This refrain ‘I trust in him, I trust in him’ comes not at the end of each verse but before the final line, which is then a reason (different each time) for such trust. God is ‘my fortress and my tower’, the one who ‘keeps me in his care’ and ‘hears and answers prayer’. The last verse concludes this trust with ‘Safe in the shadow of the Lord, possessed by love divine, I trust in him, I trust in him, and meet his love with mine’.