If you pay attention when you’re singing hymns, you
may recognize the name Phoebe P. Knapp as the composer
of the tune for Fanny Crosby’s Blessed Assurance! In
this offering, Mrs. Knapp contributes both words and
music:
1. O now I see the cleansing wave,
The fountain deep and wide:
Jesus, my Lord, mighty to save,
Points to His wounded side.
2. I rise to walk in heav’n’s own light
Above the world and sin,
With heart made pure and garments white,
...(+)
If you pay attention when you’re singing hymns, you
may recognize the name Phoebe P. Knapp as the composer
of the tune for Fanny Crosby’s Blessed Assurance! In
this offering, Mrs. Knapp contributes both words and
music:
1. O now I see the cleansing wave,
The fountain deep and wide:
Jesus, my Lord, mighty to save,
Points to His wounded side.
2. I rise to walk in heav’n’s own light
Above the world and sin,
With heart made pure and garments white,
And Christ enthroned within.
3. Amazing grace! tis heav’n below
To feel the blood applied,
And Jesus, only Jesus know—
My Jesus crucified.
Chorus: The cleansing stream I see, I see!
I plunge, and O it cleanseth me!
O praise the Lord, it cleanseth me!
It cleanseth me—yes, cleanseth me!
We can deduce from verse three that John Newton had
some influence on this work. More on Mrs. Knapp—she
was an American composer born in New York City in 1839.
An organist, she had her very own pipe organ, which
her husband had installed in their New York apartment!
She was the organist at the John Street Methodist
Episcopal Church, which is where Crosby went, which
explains the connection on Blessed Assurance.
