This week's selection for Hymn of the Week is in honor of my roommate, Jonathan. As he is in Ireland on business for the next 100 years or so, I figured it appropriate to choose an old Irish hymn just for him. I wanted to pick one out last week for him related to that trip's location, but there is a surprising dearth of great hymn writers from Winnipeg. Those Manitobans need to pick it up.
We sang this a few weeks ago in church, and I loved it. Actually, this is a good time to unveil something Jonathan and I discovered a while back. We've found that the power of the Spirit evident in any given meeting is proportional to the quality and quantity of hymns that are sung. I stress quality because one How Great Thou Art is worth at least a dozen renditions of When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder. Maybe we should call this the Charles Wesley Corollary. I'll get back to you on that. At any rate, I think this is a song that becomes more powerful to me every time I sing it (which is not often enough). It was a favorite of many in seminary, and as time goes on I can see why. Here are the lyrics of which, as far as I know, the original writer is unknown.
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, and I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always;
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High king of heaven, my treasure Thou art.
High king of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.
This is one of those songs that works well as a prayer. In fact, I invite you to try it out as such. One thing I like about it is the combination of the rightful place of God in our lives and thought, as well as our communion with Him. It also places emphasis on the benefits of being His child (inheritance, victory). The last verse includes the hope of heaven (for the third week in a row I point out that many hymns have this, someone needs to do an in-depth survey or thesis on this), as well as a It Is Well With My Soul-like "whatever befall, still be my vision." This song has everything. It is rapidly approaching "That Better Be Played At My Funeral" status. Thanks for reading, I hope you take the time to meditate on this great Irish hymn, feel free to leave your thoughts.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
13 comments:
Sorry about the absence of men stuffing their faces with sausage did not make it to our blog. Very [un]fortunately, the photo zoomed in on "LumberJack" losing the last .3 pounds of his sausage came out a little too blurry for blog quality.
About the hymn, this also, is one of my favorites. I agree that we should sing more of them at CFCF, and at any other time. Rebecca St. James actually does a great remix of this hymn, if you ever feel the desire to worship through dance...which, if you don't, maybe you should pray and ask God to give you that desire, cause it's really quite remarkable. Asking God throughout the day to be my vision helps me have a better perspective and remember His purposes. I feel like it goes right alongside Brother Lawrence's thoughts/prayers on practicing the presence of God.
What do you think about speaking to each other in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs? Can I say "Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise" next time I see you? Would that make you chuckle, or be encouraged? What is the not-so-literal interpretation of that charge? (in your thoughts...)
I think it's widely accepted that Winnipeg is a godless hotbed of sin.
I too love Be Thou My Vision, especially the version done by Ginny Owens, which is especially poignant because she's blind, and God has to be her vision. I think this makes my top 3 hymns, with Amazing Grace and How Great Thou Art coming just ahead of it, in that order.
My pet peeve when it comes to this one is when people don't know quite how to time the words in the third line of each stanza. Like, "Thou a-and Tho-ou o-o-nly, first in my heart" is not supposed to come out "ThouandThouonly,first i-i-in my heart." Slow down, let the words kinda breathe a little, and you'll be OK. Same with the "Thou my great Father" line. Ginny does it beautifully, and she only takes a minute or so - it's easy to listen to hers a couple of times just to get the rhythm down.
But yes, beautiful beautiful hymn, both music and words. Thanks for choosing this one.
Thanks guys for your thoughts, I haven't heard either of the versions you two mention (and I had no idea Ginny Owens is blind).
Neave (presumably this is Matt), I think this hymn does go along with some of Brother Lawrence's thoughts, nice connection. As for the passage you mention, I think I have to meditate on that one for a while. Good question. Do you have any thoughts?
Kurt, I'm glad I was able to pick one of your top 3. I'm not sure where this one ranks for me, since I've never sat down to figure that out (which is surprising, since I can list off my all-time baseball team like it's nothing, as well as just about any other sport). I know my top 2 probably favorite hymns, that's about it.
Let's not neglect the infrequently sung medial verse:
Be thou my battleshield, sword for my fight
Be thou my dignity, thou my delight
Thou my soul's shelter, thou my high tow'r
Raise thou me heavenward, O pow'r of my pow'r.
Um, "Neave" happens to be Pam this time... sorry for the mix-up. (Matt doesn't so much use the dancing style of worship...but I think there's still hope for him)
Pamela J! I'm so sorry for the mix-up, I didn't realize you read this blog. I'd tidy up a bit more if I knew that. By the way, I laid awake in bed for a while thinking about your question, I think I'll post something about it at some point.
Holla! Thanks for the props.
I also had no idea about Ginny Owens. Wow, that does make her version, which I listened to while reading the blog, all the more powerful. It is simple and lovely, which is how all hymns should remain. The lyrics of great hymns stand on their own; dressing them in fancy and drawn out arrangments is the musical equivalent of gilding the lily.
This is a fabulous hymn for the very reasons you gave. It has everything from putting us in our rightful position of humility and submission before God while expressing the great value and joy from which we derive our worth. It's gotta be in my top five.
I can't wait for a further discussion of the our simmonsonian Hymns-Spirit Theorem and the Charles Wesly Corollary. As we've observed, it's obviously true.
When I visit St. Patty's Cathedral here, I'll see if I can drum up interest among the crowd in singing a few verses. Interestingly enough, I think the hymn is older than the 12th century church.
It looks like I picked a winner this week. I knew jp would catch the Bill Simmonsesque use of "corollary" (which I'm not entirely sure is the proper use, I'll check into that).
Apparently I need to hear Ginny Owens' version. Is this a whole cd of hymns? (And did you really use the phrase "gilding the lily?")
Have fun at St Patty's. I expect a full report of the Spirit moving due to the song leading of JP (will you wear a robe?).
img, I had never heard that verse - I like it a lot. Thanks.
Yeah, Ginny's blind. She came and played at Baylor a few times, and on the Night in Rocketown live CD I got when I was a college freshman, there's a track of her just telling the story of her life. She's pretty cool.
(I thought neave was Matt too, and I thought it was cool that he secretly worships through dance. But I guess not yet...)
Wow, gilding the lily. I'm impressed.
The Ginny CD with Be Thou My Vision is Without Condition - I know Neil just got a copy, so you can borrow it from him. No other hymns on there - a few worship songs, other just random Christian songs. Good stuff. I got her next CD and greatly regretted it, as she works best when it's just her beautiful voice and a piano and maybe a few other subtle instruments - overproduction killed her second CD for me (it has a sound that doesn't really belong outside a minivan with a soccer mom driving around a bunch of pre-teen girls - I was so embarrassed to play it in my car, just in case someone next to me at a stoplight heard it), although she then put out an EP doing a few of those songs and some of her earlier ones in a more stripped-down acoustic style, so that helped a lot. I haven't followed her since then.
The line that really gets me is "naught be all else to me, save that thou art." It's sobering for me to sing and reflect on those words, that nothing else has meaning or worth, unless He truly is Lord of my heart.
Kurt, thanks for the Ginny Owens info. I had no idea you were president of her fan club. Too bad that won't help you pass the bar. Now get back to studying!
Sarah (making her much-anticipated return to the blog of danny), that line is one that is a good example of why unusual wording is sometimes a good thing. It took me a while to figure it out, it was worth the effort.
Best. Hymn. Ever.
Post a Comment