I’ve been exploring some of the very modern worship songs as an old guy 😀. But now, I’ve decided to alternate between very modern hymns, old hymns, and in-between hymns, namely the worship songs from the 60s to the 90s that feature in hymnbooks such as Mission Praise. Today it’s the turn of the old hymns.
Today’s song is Be Thou my Vision from 1919. 1919 was when it was paired with the Slane folk tune, but the text on which it is based originates in the 10th-11th century or maybe even the 6th.
1. 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 and by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
2. Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true Word;
I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord.
Thou my great Father, I thy dear child;
Thou in me dwelling, with thee reconciled.
3. Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight;
Be thou my dignity, thou my delight.
Thou my soul's shelter, thou my high tow'r;
Raise thou me Heav'nward, O Pow'r of my pow'r.
4. Riches I heed not, nor vain, empty praise;
Thou mine inheritance, now and always.
Thou and thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my treasure thou art.
5. High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven's joys, O bright Heav'ns Sun!
Heart of my heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.
As with poetic hymns in general, when I sing it, I tend to focus on the mood of the hymn, and the title, rather than the details. For example, what is meant by “Naught be all else to me save that thou art.”? I think I get it, but I wouldn’t want to be trying to figure it out while singing it 😀.
But I just think of it as a prayer that God would help me to focus on Him. So many people, even in “Christian Ireland” are happy to keep God out of the picture. I think of the lines of another hymn; Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus:
Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace
It’s nice to reflect on how long the name of Jesus has been known in Ireland. When I look at church history, I can find plenty of fault with the church down through the ages. It did much good, but some evil too. But I’d like to think that many focused on Jesus himself rather than church rituals. Even in the Old Testament, we can see in the Psalms, evidence of personal devotion. A legitimate system did exist of civic and ceremonial laws and rituals and so on, but God was much more concerned on where people were at in their hearts – our love for God and for other people.
Here are some other versions, including one in the Irish language. Few people in Ireland speak Irish. Maybe the reason is that it was imposed on us. My last attempt to learn it was when I was training to be a teacher of engineering subjects. All teachers needed to do an exam in Irish. I remember one of our trainers mentioning that when foreigners learnt Irish, they made much more progress because they were doing it on a voluntary basis. And maybe its the same with religion. Because people in Ireland saw it as something imposed by the establishment, people might have given lip service to it, but that’s all. That’s what attracted me to evangelical churches in my late teens. They were small, but composed of people who chose to go there out of a desire to fellowship with people who were enthusiastic about Jesus and the Bible. They’re not full of perfect people – you do get disagreements, splits etc., but I’m very pleased to have discovered them and spent the last 46 years attending them.
Hibernia Gospel 