He Leadeth Me
A civil war hymn, written by a young minister when contemplating the words of Psalm 23. Some time later he was surprised to find his own poem published as a hymn! Hear the story, a deep look at the lyrics, and a performance of the song on today’s episode.
Introduction
Do you know the song "He Leadeth Me"? I don't know this one at all, as usual! I learned it this week, and now I really love this song.
If you have any memories of the song or if it means something to you, I'd love for you to share your stories below. If you like classic hymns and you like hearing the stories behind them, why don't you hit the subscribe button and join me here on a Friday when I do one of these songs?
By the way, I hope you've joined my daily devotions channel. I do a short audio teaching every weekday, 2 or 3 minutes. If you like the tone of these, you'll like the tone of those, I'm sure. Check it out.
This is such a beautiful hymn. Let me share the story behind it.
The Story Behind "He Leadeth Me"
This hymn dates back to the bad days of the Civil War in the States. In March 1862 a young minister named Joseph Henry Gilmore was about to preach the midweek service at First Baptist Church in Philadelphia. He was the son of Joseph Gilmore, the governor of New Hampshire, so he came from a good background, got a good education, and ended up teaching Hebrew at Newton Theological Seminary. At this point in the early 1860s, he was freshly ordained and had been filling in at First Baptist in Philadelphia for a couple of weeks whilst the pastors were away.
That evening, Gilmore had planned to preach a message on Psalm 23, which he'd done many times. He knew how to preach this message, but as he was preparing this time around, he got to the phrase "He leadeth me" in the psalm and it stopped him in his tracks. He read it as for the first time, and this phrase just caught him. So he went in and preached on these words.
After the service he was having a conversation with one of the deacons, again marvelling at how that little phrase had caught him: "He leadeth me". So he took out a piece of paper and wrote the words to this hymn in a moment of inspiration where these words came to him. He handed the piece of paper over to his wife and forgot about it.
But Mrs. Gilmore didn't forget about it. These words had really touched her, so she sent them off to a local publication who actually published this as a poem in 1862 at the end of the year. A few years later, Gilmore was preaching in New York and opened the hymnal to see what hymns were going to be sung that day at the service. To his own surprise, there was his poem "He Leadeth Me" as one of the hymns that was going to be sung.
One of the great composers of the time, William Bradbury, had put some great music to this tune. He also added that middle part, the chorus or the refrain, and just added a line in so that it all balanced. Bradbury is quite a famous composer. He also wrote the music for "Jesus Loves Me" and "Just As I Am", and a few hymns that are featured on this channel.
Gilmore returned home to tell his wife about what had happened, and she confessed to him that she had actually sent this hymn to be published, and that it had obviously now picked up some popularity as it spread across the states. Its popularity increased even more when Ira Sankey, the great music leader of the Moody evangelical movement, included it in his hymnals. More and more this song was sung and it became one of the great favourites.
Gilmore ended up becoming quite a respected academic. He lectured at universities and was a professor of English at the University of Rochester. He died in 1918, known mostly for this little hymn.
Let's take a look at the words that he wrote and why they've continued to be so popular even till today.
What Do the Lyrics of "He Leadeth Me" Mean?
There are four verses.
Verse One
He leadeth me, O blessèd thought.
This comes from that psalm, Psalm 23: "He leadeth me beside the still waters. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." For him this was a blessed thought, a wonderful thought that God was leading him. I wonder if it's a blessed thought for you today that God has not just left you, but He's leading you along, not only to places of rest but to paths of righteousness and goodness. The question is, are you following?
He leadeth me, O blessèd thought,
O words with heavenly comfort fraught.
“Fraught” means filled, or loaded with meaning. So these words of how He leads me carry so much comfort - heavenly comfort for him. Beautiful.
Whatever I do, wherever I be,
Still 'tis Christ's hand that leadeth me.
What a thought! Wherever you go, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, it is still Christ that's leading the way. It reminds me of the Psalms where David said, "Where can I go to flee from Your Spirit? If I go there, You're still there. If I go there, You're still there." As a child of God, God is with you wherever you go. Do you know this today? He's leading you and guiding you day by day. I hope that you are following how He guides and leads.
Verse Two
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.
Here he's saying that even amid difficulties and hardships, he still believes that God's hand is guiding him. If you think about Psalm 23, the psalm that he based this on, there's that line that says, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." So even through dark valleys, God is leading and comforting us.
For him, even if he was in a place of deep gloom, or as he says in the next line, sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom - in other words, if things are going well, if it feels like I'm in the Garden of Eden and everything is great - and in the third line, he brings them together by saying "by waters still o'er troubled sea". So God leads us beside the still waters. That's another Psalm 23 reference. Even if there's a troubled sea all around, God brings me to quiet waters and leads me into that place where I can find healing.
It’s still His hand that leads me - whether it's turbulent or still water that I'm facing, whether it's gloom or a place where the flowers are blooming, God is the one who's leading.!
Verse Three
Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine,
Nor ever murmur nor repine.
He wants to clasp God's hand. He wants to be close with this God and not just follow Him from a distance, but be close. He doesn't want to murmur or repine - in other words, to worry or be unhappy. This is the picture of a Christian's journey: we hold Christ's hand, or He holds our hand as He leads us along.
Content, whatever lot I see,
Since 'tis Thou that leadest me.
Whatever I have, I'm content because He's leading. This is what faith can do in your life! If you are clasping the hand of Christ and following His lead in whatever happens, whether you're going through good or bad, you will have the sense that He's leading you and you can be content.
That's what Paul said in Philippians 4. He said, "I know what it is to have a lot. I know what it is to have nothing. But I've learned the secret of being content." Paul said, "I can do it all through Christ who strengthens me." This is what Gilmore is saying here. Whatever goes on in my life, if I've got Jesus' hand in mine, I'll be content!
Is that your attitude? Do you need to claim that again today and say, "I'm content in You, Lord Jesus, because my hand is in Yours"?
Verse Four
And when my task on earth is done,
When by Thy grace the victory's won.
Now he's thinking about his own death. When he is done on earth and it's all finished, and the victory has been won;
E'en death's cold wave I will not flee,
Since Thou in triumph leadest me.
He's saying he's not going to be afraid of death because he knows that he's even led into his death by God. He can trust Him to lead him to death at the right moment.
This is profound! This sounds very nice until you are facing death yourself. It's all very easy to talk about how the Christian is not afraid of death until they face death.
What I've noticed as I've sat with people who are dying is that even Christians who are assured of where they're going and know that heaven awaits still struggle with the thought of dying, because you don't know - is it going to hurt? Am I going to suffer in those last moments? It's always a difficult one. But this perspective that Gilmore gives is powerful. Even if death's wave comes over me, I will not flee from it, because I believe God will be leading me to that place where I see Him face to face.
As a Christian - as a follower of Christ - you can follow Him all the way to the other side of the grave. Isn't that a thought? May it be that today we find hope in the face even of death, because our hands are in His, and we are following where He leads.
Chorus
He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
by His own hand He leadeth me.
That phrase is repeated and repeated because that's the focus: He's leading! He's leading by His hand. It's not what I'm doing. I'm just following His lead and going where He sends.
His faithful follower I would be,
for by His hand He leadeth me.
I think this is the line that Bradbury added. I want to follow faithfully. I don’t want to go off on my own paths and then have to come back to where He leads. I wants to faithfully follow Him.
Following Jesus down the road is tricky because the paths that Jesus leads are not the easy ones! Yes, He leads us in places of rest. He leads us to the quiet waters when we need it. But as we go and engage with the world, we go down difficult paths. We deal with people who are difficult. We face struggles that are difficult. We have to make difficult decisions. We have to make sacrifices. But we follow Jesus down those roads anyway because we want to be His faithful follower!
We're not His faithful followers just because it's easy. In fact, it's harder to follow Jesus than not to. But because He leads us in the paths of righteousness and He leads us to places that He knows will benefit us and benefit the world, we follow.
So are you following His lead today? I hope so! I hope that this song has reminded you that you can follow Jesus' lead and trust in Him. May it be that your prayer today is: "His faithful follower I will be, for by His hand He leadeth me."
Conclusion
We're going to sing it now. Before we do, just thank you to those who support this ministry. I'm so grateful for your donations. If you're on my Patreon, you get free downloads of the piano track that's playing underneath my speaking at the moment and the performance that I do of each of these hymns. So please check that out if you would. But thank you. I'm so grateful for your support.
Come, let's sing this song and celebrate His leading hand.
References
Discipleship Ministries. "History of Hymns: 'He Leadeth Me: O Blessed Thought.'" The United Methodist Church
Brown, Theron and Butterworth, Hezekiah. The Story of the Hymns and Tunes. New York: George H. Doran Co., 1906.
Hall, J.H. Biographies of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1914.
Hymnary.org. "He Leadeth Me" and "HE LEADETH ME (Bradbury)."
Hymnology Archive. "He Leadeth Me" and "William Bradbury."
Young, Carlton R. Companion to the United Methodist Hymnal. Nashville: Abingdon, 1993.
