Hamadamath Oba Ma Samaga

Always, you are with me,
never once abandoning me
in the lake of tears, in the storm,
you sit with me, always

When my weaknesses closed in around me,
you became the refuge so I would not fall
when many trampled and oppressed me,
you became the protection that surrounded me

Always, you are with me,
never once abandoning me
in the lake of tears, in the storm,
you sit with me, always

Nothing of the praise belongs to me,
the mighty deeds were all yours, done through my hands
when people trod me down into the ground,
you lifted me up and set me on a peak

Always, you are with me,
never once abandoning me
in the lake of tears, in the storm,
you sit with me, always

This is a hymn of the constant presence of God, and its refrain says the one thing a hurting heart most needs to hear: “always, you are with me, never once abandoning me.” It pictures God not as a distant helper who shows up occasionally, but as a companion who “sits with me, always,” even, and especially, “in the lake of tears, in the storm.” The two hardest places, deep sorrow and violent trouble, are exactly where God is found seated beside the singer.

The verses give evidence for that confidence from the singer’s own life. “When my weaknesses closed in around me, you became the refuge so I would not fall.” God was the thing that kept him upright when his own strength gave out. And when the trouble was other people, “when many trampled and oppressed me, you became the protection that surrounded me,” God was a shield against those who meant him harm.

The final verse adds a note of beautiful humility. Whatever good the singer has done, he refuses to take the credit: “nothing of the praise belongs to me, the mighty deeds were all yours, done through my hands.” And he ends with a vivid reversal, “when people trod me down into the ground, you lifted me up and set me on a peak.” What the listener is left with is the deep security of never being alone, a God who stays through every tear and storm, who catches the weak before they fall, shields the oppressed, works his good through humble hands, and raises up those the world has tried to bury.