Wednesday, November 27, 2019

"Be Thou my battle shield, sword for the fight!"

Be Thou My Vision

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, I Thy true son;

Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle shield, sword for the fight;

Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight;

Thou my soul’s shelter, Thou my high tower:

Raise Thou me heavenward, O power of my power.

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.

-Forgaill/Byrne/Hull




4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this wonderful hymn and the verse in the middle that we've never sung. That's a great verse!

Also loved your 11/26 post on letting the Lord avenge. It is best to let Him deal with the troublesome people in our lives.

Blessings,

Carolyn

The Piper's Wife said...

Thank you, Carolyn, yes, allowing the LORD to avenge is so right and glorifies Him, but as humans it is difficult to wait!

Waiting is the thing and we must learn to wait for many reasons with vengeance definitely being one of them!

What a blessing are the verses which have been taken out of many hymnals with this one being so powerful:

"Be Thou my battle shield, sword for the fight;

Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight;

Thou my soul’s shelter, Thou my high tower:

Raise Thou me heavenward, O power of my power."

Thank you again for your comment :o)

Anonymous said...

Love this hymn! We chose it to sing at our daughter’s wedding! But I had never known of the middle verse, either.
Kathryn

The Piper's Wife said...

Praising the LORD with you! What a beautiful hymn for your daughter's special day!

Yes, I had never heard this verse either until recently. It is very special to me now!

I am working on a post for "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" in which many of the original words have been changed over all these years. Even the ones who leave in, "Ebenezer", tend to change other parts! I was disappointed to learn this. I also wonder if the "original" I found is actually correct.

These days we have modern singers and song writers, using and changing old hymns. Grrrr... I always think of how THEY would not desire anyone to change their songs words. I suppose everyone needs to grow up some time as they probably will.

Thank you for your comments and encouragements!