Hymn For The Week: He Leadeth Me

He Leadeth Me - Piano/Cello Arrangement of the Classic Hymn

1. He leadeth me, O blessed thought!
   O words with heav’nly comfort fraught!
   Whate’er I do, where’er I be
   Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.
   • Refrain:
     He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
     By His own hand He leadeth me;
     His faithful foll’wer I would be,
     For by His hand He leadeth me.
2. Sometimes ’mid scenes of deepest gloom,
   Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom,
   By waters still, o’er troubled sea,
   Still ’tis His hand that leadeth me.
3. Refrain:
   He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
   By His own hand He leadeth me;
   His faithful foll’wer I would be,
   For by His hand He leadeth me.
4. Lord, I would place my hand in Thine,
   Nor ever murmur nor repine;
   Content, whatever lot I see,
   Since ’tis my God that leadeth me.
5. Refrain:
   He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
   By His own hand He leadeth me;
   His faithful foll’wer I would be,
   For by His hand He leadeth me.
6. And when my task on earth is done,
   When by Thy grace the vict’ry’s won,
   E’en death’s cold wave I will not flee,
   Since God through Jordan leadeth me.
7. Refrain:
   He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
   By His own hand He leadeth me;
   His faithful foll’wer I would be,
   For by His hand He leadeth me.

"He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." Psalms 23:3

On autumn nights as we sleep peacefully in our beds, millions of songbirds travel under cover of darkness, heading south. Somehow, they know their way. God has given them a state-of-the-art internal guidance system.

We're more valuable than many sparrows. If God guides His creation, will He not also His children? The Psalmist thought so, saying, "He leadeth me....He leadeth me..." Psalm 23: 2-3

Dr. Joseph H. Gilmore, son of a Governor of New Hampshire, gave this account of writing his famous hymn on this theme:

A a young man recently graduated..., I was preaching for a couple of Sundays at the pulpit of the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia. At the midweek service, on the 26th of March, 1862, I sent out to give the people an exposition of the Twenty-third Psalm, which I had given before on three or four occasions, but this time I did not get further then the words "He Leadeth Me." Those words took hold of me as they had never done before, and I saw in them a significance...of which I had never dreamed.

It was the darkest hour of the Civil War. I did not refer to that fact-that is, I don't think I did-but it may subconsciously have lead me to realize that God's leadership is the one significant fact in human experience, that it makes no difference how we are lead, or whither we are led, so long as we are sure God is leading us.

At the close of the meeting a few of us in the parlor of my host, Deacon Watson, kept on talking about the thought I had emphasized; and then and there, on a black page of the brief form which I had intended to speak, I penciled the hymn, talking and writing at the same time, then handed it to my wife and thought no more about it. She sent it to The Watchman and Reflector, a paper published in Boston, where it was first printed. I did not know until 1865 that my hymn had been set to music by William B. Bradbury.