Lyrics
When we walk with the Lord
In the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will,
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Not a shadow can rise,
Not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt nor a fear,
Not a sigh nor a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.
Not a burden we bear,
Not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief nor a loss,
Not a frown nor a cross,
But is blest if we trust and obey.
But we never can prove
The delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows,
And the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.
Then in fellowship sweet
We will sit at His feet,
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way;
What He says we will do,
Where He sends we will go,
Never fear, only trust and obey.
Public domain hymn text (published 1887). Words by John H. Sammis.
The Story Behind the Hymn
John Sammis was a Presbyterian minister who spent most of his career in ordinary pastoral work, first as a businessman before entering ministry later in life, and might easily have remained a footnote in gospel song history if not for a single hymn built almost entirely out of someone else’s words.
He wrote it after hearing a young man give an unscripted testimony at a revival meeting connected to D. L. Moody, one of the most influential evangelists of the era.
The young man reportedly stood up and said, simply and without embellishment, ‘I am not quite sure, but I am going to trust, and I am going to obey.’
The line’s plain honesty — admitting real doubt while still committing to act anyway — struck Moody’s song leader, Daniel Towner, so forcefully that he wrote the words down on the spot, right there in the meeting.
Towner later sent the phrase to Sammis by letter and asked him to build a full hymn text around it. Sammis wrote the verses; Towner composed the tune.
The hymn’s central claim — that happiness in the Christian life comes from the practical, daily disciplines of trust and obedience rather than from emotional certainty — reflected a wider current running through the revival movements of the era.
Moody himself preached a plain, practical faith and was famously wary of overly emotional displays of religious feeling, a sensibility this hymn distilled into four short lines.
Those lines went on to be sung by congregations for generations after the young man’s original testimony, and even his name, had been entirely forgotten.
