Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah—Bless the Soldiers
November 25, 2008
I’m posting music videos Monday-Thursday as we make our way toward Thanksgiving Day. Yesterday it was a medley of Thanksgiving hymns. Today I decided on “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah,” a beloved hymn that is perhaps not as well known as it was a generation ago. But this famous Welsh hymn (sung to a tune called “Cwm Rhondda") deserves to be sung often by young and old alike because it speaks to the universal sense that we are all pilgrims on a journey through “this barren land.” I found a short article giving the story behind the hymn. If there is such a thing as a “man’s hymn,” this is it. I can imagine a men’s chorus singing it or my friend Huw Priday, the gifted Welsh tenor.
YouTube offers a number of fine videos of this hymn, including a version by the Men’s Choir of the Crystal Cathedral. But after some meditation, I settled on this very moving video that joins a traditional choral rendering with accompanying still shots featuring scenes of our soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was touched by the thought of our brave men and women who will celebrate Thanksgiving far from home.
So this video goes out to them. And I send it out with a special prayer for Christopher Eaton, serving somewhere in Iraq. God bless him and God bless all the members of our Armed Forces wherever they may be.