Sheet music for solo and SAB choir and mp3/minus tracks available at www.angiekillian.com/shop
Upon the Rock
Music & Lyrics by Angie Killian
Arranged by Daniel Blomberg
Vocalists: Malaina Dunford, Ellie Wride, Elijah Mason, Cohen Penrod, Anneka Anderson, Annalyce Chandler, Evan Ellis & Dillon Ellis
Additional choir members: Youth from the Salem Stake
Recorded, mixed, & mastered by David Zimmerman at Noisebox Studios
Videography by Josh Sales
Production Assistant: Courtney Sales
This song was written specifically to be the Salem Stake’s 2022 youth trek theme song. When I was writing this song, an experience I had as a child at Lake Powell kept replaying in my mind. My family has a favorite family tradition: Lake Powell. Until after I got married, my family used to go every year with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We had a share in a houseboat and would take it out of the slip to camp on the beaches so the kids could play in the sand from sunup to sundown. To keep the houseboat in place, anchors were tied to the four corners of the boat and buried deep in the sand. This always kept our boat in place until one year when it didn’t.
We knew the weather was getting bad when my uncle Rob-the “fun-cle”-told us he couldn’t take us tubing because of the white caps on the waves. He almost never told us no. We knew it was getting worse when the back of the boat started moving from side to side. And we knew we were in trouble when with each wave that hit the shore, we were losing shoreline. We were going to lose our anchors. The fathers dawned life jackets (a sight we seldom saw), and each climbed into either the houseboat or one of the two small speed boats to attempt to move them to a cove around the corner. The mothers and 19 children were left huddled on the shore with a few bottles of water, wallets, keys, prescriptions, and anything else that couldn’t be replaced if the boat went down. We were afraid and very uncomfortable (imagine being stuck on a sandy beach in the middle of a windstorm.). We knelt in a circle and prayed, asking for Heavenly Father to keep our daddies and our boats safe.
After what felt like an eternity, a boat with a large bow came from around the corner and-one by one-lifted us into the front and drove us in groups of about 8 around the corner where our fathers had safely secured our houseboat and the small speed boats.
Shortly after this, our family started camping not on sand, but on rocks. We would tie the four corners of the boat directly to anchors we drilled into the sandstone cliffs.
“Remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall” (Helaman 5:12).
Lyrics
When there’s no dawn for the darkness,
No end in tunnels of night,
I will not fear for my faith has been fortified in Christ.
When mighty winds beat upon me,
When raging waves will not cease,
He stills the storms in my soul, and he fills me with his peace.
Chorus:
Upon the rock of my Redeemer,
I am sheltered from the storm.
With this firm and sure foundation,
He will keep me safe from harm
Upon the rock.
I work alongside the master;
I feel him close when I pray.
His gentle yoke lifts my load, and his teachings show the way.
Through study, footings are strengthened.
In service, walls are made tall,
Raised up with unwavering love on my cornerstone, my all.
Chorus
Upon the rock of my Redeemer,
I am sheltered from the storm.
With this firm and sure foundation,
He will keep me safe from harm
Upon the rock.
When I’m anchored to my Savior,
I won’t break when I am shaken;
I will stand steadfast and immovable.
Chorus
Upon the rock of my Redeemer,
I am sheltered from the storm.
With this firm and sure foundation,
He will keep me safe from harm
Upon the rock of my Redeemer,
I will stand with hope in Christ.
He is the source of my salvation,
And he fills me with his might
Upon the rock.
Upon the rock.
_________________
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