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A Good Word

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

The need for daily guidance is one of the believer’s greatest concerns. How easily our lives can go astray without the assurance of divine leadership. One of the great hymns of the Church is a product of the revival movement that swept through Wales during the 18th century. This revival was led by a 24-year-old Welsh preacher, Howell Harris, who stirred the land with his fervent evangelistic preaching and his use of congregational singing.

One of the lives touched by Harris’s ministry was 20-year-old William Williams. Young Williams, the son of a wealthy Welsh farmer, was preparing to become a medical doctor. But upon hearing the stirring challenge by evangelist Howell Harris, Williams dedicated his life to God and Christian ministry. William Williams, like Harris, decided to take all of Wales as his parish and for the next 43 years traveled 100,000 miles on horseback, preaching and singing the gospel in his native tongue. He became known as the “sweet singer of Wales.”

The vivid, symbolic imagery of this text is drawn wholly from the Bible. The general setting is the march of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan. Although the Israelites’ sin and unbelief kept them from their destination for 40 years, God provided for their physical needs with a new supply of manna each day.

Twice during the Hebrews’ years of wandering, they became faint because of lack of water. At the command of God, Moses struck a large rock with his wooden staff. Out of it flowed a pure, crystalline stream that preserved their lives. God also continued to guide them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, pilgrim thru this barren land;
I am weak, but Thou art mighty—hold me with Thy pow’rful hand:
Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more,
Feed me till I want no more.

Open now the crystal fountain, whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me all my journey thru:
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer, be Thou still my strength and shield,
Be Thou still my strength and shield.

When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside;
Bear me thru the swelling current, land me safe on Canaan’s side:
Songs of praises, songs of praises, I will ever give to Thee,
I will ever give to Thee.

Taken from Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions. ©1990, 2002 by Kenneth W. Osbeck. Published by Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

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