Songfacts®:

• This timeless hymn was written by the Anglican curate, Reverend Augustus Toplady (1740-1778) after taking a walk at Burrington Combe, a steep limestone valley with many caves in Somerset, South West England. A mighty thunderstorm blew up and the curate found an opening in an immense granite rock, in which he sheltered from the storm. This inspired the imagery of Christ as a sheltering rock. The hymn was first published in the Gospel Magazine in 1775, some 12 years after Toplady wrote it.
• Despite being converted under a Methodist evangelist while attending the University of Dublin, the Calvinist Toplady rejected Charles and John Wesleys' theology and waged a running battle with them through tracts, sermons, and even hymns. He later softened his stance a little and two years before he died of tuberculosis and overwork at the age of thirty-eight, Toplady published his own hymnal, in which this classic hymn and Charles Wesley's "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" were placed side by side.
• The hymn was a favourite of Prince Albert, who asked it to be played to him on his deathbed, as did Confederate Genera J.E.B. Stuart. The British Prime Minister William Gladstone did a Latin translation 'Jesus, pro me perforatus' and it was later played at his funeral.
• The hymn is usually sung to the tune of "Toplady" by the American composer Thomas Hastings (1784-1872).
• Many gospel and inspirational artists have recorded versions of this hymn including Johnny Cash, Patti Page, Chris Rice and Mahalia Jackson.