During that time the rector of Killurin Parish, the Reverend Abraham Swanne, was a lasting influence on Lyte's life and ministry.

It was related that Lyte was staying with the Hore family in County Wexford and had visited an old friend, William Augustus Le Hunte, who was dying.

After leaving William's bedside, Lyte wrote the hymn and gave a copy of it to Le Hunte's family.

The Biblical link for the hymn is Luke 24:29 in which the disciples asked Jesus to abide with them "for it is toward evening and the day is spent".

In the evening of the same day he placed in the hands of a near and dear relative the little hymn, "Abide with Me", with an air of his own composing, adapted to the words.

The opening line alludes to Luke 24:29, "Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent", and the penultimate verse draws on text from 1 Corinthians 15:55, "O death, where is thy sting?

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day; Earth's joys grow dim; its glories pass away; Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word, But as Thou dwell'st with Thy disciples, Lord, Familiar, condescending, patient, free.

For example, the compilers of one of the editions of Hymns Ancient and Modern, of which William Henry Monk, the composer of the tune "Eventide", was the original editor, omitted the verse beginning "Thou on my head in early youth didst smile;" for being too personal.

[7] The hymn was also set to music around 1890 by the American composer Charles Ives, and was published in his collection Thirteen Songs in 1958, four years after his death.

[28] The first and last verses of the hymn are traditionally sung at the FA Cup Final about 15 minutes before the kick-off of the match.

While the pitch was being cleared, the event choir, St Luke's, sang "Abide with Me"; the crowds of West Ham supporters walking back to the East End are also said to have sung the song.

[31] It was featured in the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, sung by Emeli Sandé as a tribute to the victims of the 7/7 terrorist attacks.

[33] In the movie 28 Days Later, a version performed by Perri Alleyne is played during a scene where Cillian Murphy's character Jim finds his parents passed away in their bedroom.

In the movie A Bridge Too Far, wounded British Soldiers in the failed Operation Market Garden sang "Abide with Me" while awaiting capture by the Germans in the closing credits of the film.

A chiptune rendition of the melody serves as the main menu theme of the 2022 indie survival-horror game Faith: The Unholy Trinity.

Several instrumental renditions of the melody appear in Assassin's Creed Syndicate as ambient music, notably when the character is at the top of certain synchronization points, and is played by an ensemble near a small park.

[34] The Victorian Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson, according to Francis Turner Palgrave, on reading "Abide with Me", "was deeply impressed by its solemn beauty; remarking that it wanted very little to take rank among the really perfect poems of our language".