This Is My Song: Meaning, History, and Theology

"This is my song, O God of all the nations"

Written: 1934
Category: Hymn
Tune: Standard Tune

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Story

This Is My Song is Lloyd Stone's 1934 international song of peace, commonly completed in Christian hymnals by Georgia Harkness and sung to FINLANDIA from Jean Sibelius's tone poem. Its history joins interwar hope, Methodist witness, Finnish national struggle, and a Christian call to place every earthly loyalty beneath God's kingdom.

Overview

This Is My Song, first published under the title A Song of Peace, joins a 1934 international peace text by Lloyd Stone to the hymn-like theme from Jean Sibelius's Finlandia. Christian hymnals often add a later stanza by Methodist theologian Georgia Harkness. Stone, Harkness, Sibelius, and arranger Ira B. Wilson made distinct contributions: Stone supplied the original words, Harkness added explicitly Christian material, Sibelius composed the orchestral melody decades earlier, and Wilson prepared the documented 1934 setting.

The hymn is valued because it places affection for one's homeland within a wider moral concern for other peoples. In its common Christian form, prayer for the nations is brought under God's reign, Christ's reconciling work, and personal discipleship. It can therefore serve worship concerned with peace, public responsibility, international conflict, mission, and national observances without treating any earthly nation as ultimate.

The combined text is not public domain. Congregations and publishers should use an authorized hymnal or appropriate licensing and should also verify the copyright status of the particular musical arrangement in their jurisdiction.

Historical Background

Lloyd Stone wrote the original two-stanza text in 1934, when he was twenty-two. It appeared through the Lorenz Publishing Company as A Song of Peace, with an unaccompanied arrangement by Ira B. Wilson using the familiar theme from Sibelius's Finlandia. Methodist hymn scholarship also associates the publication with the collection Sing a Tune. The work emerged during the unsettled interwar period, and its international outlook gave singers a way to affirm love of home without denying the equal dignity of people elsewhere.

By the late 1930s, the song was being used by the Wesleyan Service Guild of the Methodist Church. Marion Norris, the Guild's executive secretary, asked Georgia Harkness for material with a more distinctly Christian character. In later correspondence with hymnal editor Carlton R. Young, Harkness remembered writing at her desk while teaching at Mount Holyoke College, which dates the work to 1937-1939. She wrote two additional stanzas; one became the usual concluding stanza in many Christian hymnals. Young reported that the song became the Guild's official hymn and was widely sung in the former Methodist Church.

The music has a separate history. Sibelius composed music for seven historical tableaux at the Finnish Press Celebrations of November 1899, events that protested increasing Russian restrictions on Finland's press and autonomy. He revised the finale, originally associated with Finland's awakening, into the tone poem Finlandia, Op. 26, whose final form premiered in 1900. The calm theme near the end later became the hymn tune FINLANDIA. David Evans paired it with Be Still, My Soul in the Revised Church Hymnary of 1927, and an arrangement entered the American Presbyterian Hymnal of 1933, before Wilson's 1934 setting of Stone's text.

Copyright notices in hymnological and denominational sources identify Stone's text with the Lorenz Publishing Company or The Lorenz Corporation, generally giving 1934 and a 1962 renewal; commonly printed notices identify Harkness's stanza separately with a 1964 copyright. Exact permissions depend on the edition, arrangement, country, and intended use.

Biblical Foundations

Matthew 6:9-10 provides the clearest biblical frame: Christian prayer reaches beyond private need toward the holiness of God's name, the coming of God's kingdom, and the doing of God's will on earth. This prevents prayer for a nation from becoming an assertion that one nation possesses divine favor over all others.

Isaiah 2:4 and Psalm 46:9-10 ground the hope of peace in God's rule. Scripture does not present lasting peace as sentiment alone; it involves divine judgment, the ending of violence, and the acknowledgment of God's sovereignty among the nations.

Ephesians 2:14-18 identifies Christ as peace and locates reconciliation in the cross, where hostility is overcome and divided peoples receive access to the Father in one Spirit. Revelation 7:9-10 supplies the final horizon: redeemed people from every nation worship God and the Lamb together. These texts support the hymn's use as prayer for peace, reconciliation, and faithful public life.

Theological Reflection

The hymn is a useful expression of ordered love. Gratitude for one's homeland, culture, and neighbors can be virtuous, but Christian allegiance to God relativizes every political identity. Patriotism becomes disordered when it excuses injustice, imagines one people morally superior, or turns neighbors in other nations into abstractions or enemies.

Its Christian form also distinguishes biblical peace from mere calm or political convenience. Peace is bound to God's kingdom, Christ's reconciliation, justice, service, and the transformation of human loyalties. Ephesians 2 gives this vision a firm center: the church seeks peace because Christ has acted to overcome hostility and form a reconciled people.

The hymn therefore works best not as a ceremonial ornament but as a prayer of examination and commitment. It invites worshipers to ask whether love of country is being governed by love of God and neighbor, and whether their prayers are leading toward truthful speech, hospitality, repentance, justice, and peacemaking.

Church Impact

This Is My Song has crossed denominational lines and appears in Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Catholic, Mennonite, Community of Christ, Unitarian Universalist, and ecumenical collections. Hymnary indexes it in dozens of hymnals, usually with FINLANDIA, while some books print only Stone's peace text and others include Harkness's Christian conclusion or later alterations.

Its early Methodist reception was especially important. The Wesleyan Service Guild adopted it as an official hymn, and Harkness's addition made it more directly usable as Christian prayer. Later hymnals placed it under headings such as peace, nations, unity, citizenship, reconciliation, mission, and the kingdom of God.

The hymn remains pastorally valuable at times of war, national commemoration, political tension, or international crisis. Its use requires care: introduced well, it can resist both cynical rejection of national belonging and nationalistic idolatry. Used without context, its familiar and emotionally powerful tune can be mistaken for a simple patriotic anthem rather than a call to peace, repentance, and wider solidarity.

Musical Notes

FINLANDIA is not a folk melody and was not originally composed for congregational singing. It is adapted from the broad, hymn-like theme near the close of Sibelius's orchestral tone poem Finlandia, Op. 26. David Evans's 1927 pairing with Be Still, My Soul helped establish the theme in English-language hymnody; Ira B. Wilson then used it for Stone's text in a 1934 unaccompanied arrangement.

For This Is My Song, hymnals commonly describe the meter as 11.10.11.10.11.10, although classifications may vary slightly according to textual alteration and syllabic treatment. The melody's six long phrases, gradual rise, and spacious cadences give the text dignity and emotional breadth. Its association with Finnish national resistance also creates a meaningful tension: music born in a particular nation's struggle carries a text that widens moral concern across national boundaries.

Congregations need a steady, unhurried tempo and adequate breath between phrases. Accompanists should support the melodic line without overwhelming it or turning a prayer for peace into a display of national triumph. Because many worshipers know FINLANDIA with other words, leaders should announce the intended text clearly. Rights in the original composition, later hymn settings, and modern arrangements can differ by jurisdiction and edition.

Application

Pray by name for one's own country, neighboring countries, peoples affected by war, refugees, and those who govern.
Examine patriotic habits and language to ensure that gratitude for home does not become contempt for others or indifference to injustice.
Pair the hymn with intercession, education, relief work, refugee support, reconciliation ministries, or partnerships with churches in other nations.
Use it thoughtfully at civic or national observances, making clear that the church's highest allegiance is to God's kingdom.
Secure permission before reproducing or projecting the copyrighted text, and check the rights attached to the chosen arrangement.

Discussion Questions

What is the difference between gratitude for one's country and treating the nation as an ultimate loyalty?
How does the hymn's origin between the world wars shape its continuing use during conflict?
What changes when an international peace song is framed by the Lord's Prayer and Christ's reconciling work?
How does FINLANDIA's origin in Finland's resistance to Russian domination deepen or complicate the hymn's message?
What concrete act of peacemaking, hospitality, justice, or intercession should accompany singing this hymn?

Teaching Tips

Explain the separate histories of text and tune: Sibelius composed the orchestral theme in 1899-1900, Stone wrote his peace text in 1934, Wilson made the documented setting, and Harkness added Christian stanzas in 1937-1939.
Read Matthew 6:9-10 and Ephesians 2:14-18 before singing so that peace and public loyalty are interpreted through God's kingdom and Christ's reconciliation.
Briefly describe the Wesleyan Service Guild's role, which shows how a community's worship need prompted Harkness's contribution.
Invite worshipers to name nations and peoples for intercession, including those commonly regarded as rivals or enemies.
Avoid presenting the hymn as proof of divine endorsement for any country, and obtain the permissions required for the text and arrangement used.

Sources

C. Michael Hawn, History of Hymns: This Is My Song, Discipleship Ministries, May 22, 2013,
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Hymnary.org, This is my song, O God of all the nations, text authority,
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Hymnary.org, FINLANDIA tune authority,
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Hymnary.org, Lloyd Stone person authority,
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C. Michael Hawn, History of Hymns: Be Still, My Soul, Discipleship Ministries,
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Boston Symphony Orchestra, Sibelius: Finlandia, Opus 26,
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Pacific School of Religion, Georgia Harkness, Pioneering Theologian and Former PSR Faculty, March 3, 2023,
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The United Methodist Church, Georgia Harkness: Methodist Trailblazer in Theology,
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The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Letter to Georgia Elma Harkness, biographical note,
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Carl P. Daw Jr., Glory to God: A Companion, Westminster John Knox Press, 2016, pp. 344-345
World English Bible, public-domain Scripture text

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Tune

Standard Tune

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Tune: Standard Tune

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