Be thou my vision - 3 December 2010 |
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“Be thou my vision” is a wonderful old hymn, but one that occasionally gets congregations in a tangle. There are quite a lot of slightly different versions around in hymn books and online, and the number of syllables on each line doesn’t always fit very well. After a bit of fiddling with “and”s and “the”s, however, I think this version works pretty well – at least, the inconsistency is reasonably consistent, if you see what I mean.
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art.
Thou my best thought, in the day or the 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.
Be thou my battle shield, sword for the fight;
Be thou my dignity, Thou my delight;
Thou my soul’s shelter, and 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, the first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my treasure thou art.
High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heav’n’s joys, O bright heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.
© Estate of the late Eleanor Hull
To avoid confusion, this post has been altered to reflect the changes suggested by a friend in response to the original text. More info here.
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Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Minister's Blog