Lyrics
Fierce raged the tempest o'er the deep,
Watch did Thine anxious servants keep,
But Thou wast wrapped in guileless sleep,
Calm and still.
'Save, Lord, we perish' was their cry,
'O save us in our agony!'
Thy word above the storm rose high,
'Peace, be still.'
The wild winds hushed; the angry deep
Sank, like a little child, to sleep;
The sullen billows ceased to leap,
At Thy will.
So, when our life is clouded o'er,
And storm winds drift us from the shore,
Say, lest we sink to rise no more,
'Peace, be still.'
Public domain hymn text (1861). Words by Godfrey Thring.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Godfrey Thring wrote 'Fierce Raged the Tempest o'er the Deep' in 1861, retelling the account of Jesus calming a storm on the Sea of Galilee found in Mark 4 and the parallel Synoptic Gospels.
The hymn's opening verse deliberately dwells in the disciples' fear, contrasting their 'anxious' watch during the storm with Jesus's own 'guileless sleep,' before its second verse quotes their desperate cry nearly directly from Matthew's account.
Its third verse describes the storm's actual calming in tender, almost domestic terms, the sea sinking 'like a little child, to sleep,' a gentler image than the raw power the earlier verses describe.
The hymn's closing verse steps outside the biblical narrative entirely, applying the same scene directly to the singer's own life, asking that when 'storm winds drift us from the shore,' the same word of peace be spoken again.
That final turn, from ancient narrative to present request, is common to hymns that retell Gospel miracle stories, asking the same power once shown to the disciples to be shown again to the singer now.
