1. Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
2. Be Thou my Wisdom, Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
3. Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for my fight,
Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight.
Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower.
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
I ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
3. Be Thou my battle-shield, sword for my fight,
Be Thou my dignity, Thou my delight.
Thou my soul's shelter, Thou my high tower.
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
4. Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
5. High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heav'ns Son!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
5. High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heav'ns Son!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.
This is probably one of my favorite hymns. I get in the habit of singing while I'm at work washing dishes, which can prove to be quite embarrassing when someone walks in on me and I'm really into it, but it doesn't seem to stop me :-). For some reason the lyrics seem to just stick in my head and express a lot of my heart and I've been wanting to find out all of the stanzas so that I can sing it in its entirety to my dishes.
The first verse seems to exude Psalm 139 describing the closeness of the Lord. It almost comes across in this song as a love sickness, just wanting Him to be near in whatever way possible. The Celts and the Irish definitely had a link with pertinent presence of God as well as the warrior spirit and the "big picture" plan He has including his final renewal. I think it has to do with their personal identity as a people, but those attributes seem to come through quite strongly in this song.
If anyone knows the actual chords to this song let me know! I've sorta picked out what worked with it on accident once on my guitar, but I think it sounds just a bit off. I need to find a hymnal around here somewhere, because some of those old songs and their histories are so moving.
Here's a cool link to a great acoustic version of this song sung by a guy I found on Youtube. He has a great voice and his guitar skills are more enjoyable than mine :-)
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that's pretty much one of my fav. songs! and yeah it does rumble around in my head lots.. i sang it for my friends wedding... i always get the verses screwed up! muah
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