Be Thou My Vision

All of us here recognize the importance of singing as a part of the Christian faith. When a person becomes a Christian, they become a singer. God commands us multiple times in His Word to “Sing to the Lord.” We were created to worship God, and one of the main ways that we worship him is by singing. I like the way that the English poet, Walter Landor, writes about music.  He says, “Music is God’s gift to man, the only art of Heaven given to earth, the only art of earth we take to heaven.” Music is one of the only things that we do here on earth that we know for sure we will continue to do in heaven. When John had his vision of heaven in the book of Revelation, he saw all of God’s people gathered around the throne singing. I’m not sure we can overstate the importance of singing as a part of the Christian faith.

Throughout church history, great periods of spiritual fervor and revival have always been accompanied by a renewed interest in congregational singing. “Historians have stated that Martin Luther won more converts to Christ through his encouragement of congregational singing than even through his strong preaching and teaching.” John and Charles Wesley were brothers that founded the Methodist denomination and “of the Wesley’s it was said that, for every person they won with their preaching, ten more were won through their music.” We still feel the effects of the Wesley’s music today. It is said that John Wesley preached over 10,000 sermons in his lifetime.  How many John Wesley sermons have you heard? But you’ve been singing the songs of Charles Wesley your entire life. Songs like Hark The Herald Angels Sing, Christ The Lord Is Risen Today, And Can It Be That I Should Gain, and Come Thou Long Expected Jesus.  Great hymns have the potential to affect people for the Gospel for generations upon generations, long after whoever wrote the hymn is gone. So that is what we will be studying this spring in our devotions, great hymns that have affected the church and the stories behind those hymns.

The first hymn we will look at is Be Thou My Vision.  No one knows who the author of this hymn is.  It’s an 8th century anonymous Irish hymn text set to a traditional Irish tune.  The first time this specific text was set to this tune was in the Irish Church Hymnal of 1919.  The title of the tune is “Slane” and it is named for a hill in Ireland where St. Patrick is said to have challenged the pagan Druid priests with the Gospel on Easter.  The title of this tune, “Slane,” is interesting to me because St. Patrick is most likely the person that we should thank for the hymn Be Thou My Vision

We all know St. Patrick. He’s the only saint with a global holiday and an official color (green).  Mostly his holiday is used as an excuse to drink a gallon of beer, but he didn’t achieve sainthood by being a famous alcoholic. He was born in A.D. 373 in what is now called Scotland. His father was a deacon and his grandfather a priest. When Patrick (who was not a Christian) was around 16 years old raiders descended on his town, destroyed it, and took him to Ireland as a slave. It was there in captivity that he gave his life to Christ and became a believer.  After spending six years in Ireland as a slave, he managed to escape and eventually make his way home, much to the delight of his family. One night, after returning home, he had a dream that is very reminiscent of Paul’s vision of the Macedonian Man in Acts 16. In the dream, Patrick saw an Irishman pleading with him to come back and share the Gospel with Ireland.  He then went back to his former captors, with only his Bible in his hand, and evangelized the entire country.  In his ministry he planted 200 churches and baptized over 100,000 converts.  Centuries later the Irish church was still producing hymns, prayers, sermons, and songs of worship like Be Thou My Vision.

Vision is what St. Patrick had. He saw that Ireland was ripe for making Christian converts and he obeyed God’s call, stepped out in faith, and the results vastly exceeded anything that he could have imagined.  His vision reminds me of the classic story of the two shoe-salesmen who were sent to a primitive island to determine the island’s business potential. The first salesman calls his business partners and says “I’m coming home immediately, no one on this island wears shoes.”  The second man calls his business partners and says “send a boatload of shoes here immediately. The possibilities for selling shoes here are unlimited.”  That is the difference of vision.

When you let God set the vision in your life and you step out in faith and follow that vision, there will inevitably be eternal fruit.

Categories: Hymns of the Faith Paul Austin

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