Be Thou My Vision

All songs written to God are prayers to him. Whether sung privately or corporately, by a soloist or a congregation, they are all addresses to the almighty. For most of us Evangelicals, songs are the only pre written prayers we use. Praying through hymns/songs is a great way to focus yourself during personal prayer times. Using someone else’s words and hanging our thoughts on them stops our minds from wandering. (for more on pre written prayers I suggest you read this blog: http://chdevotions.blogspot.com/2008/06/book-of-perhaps-not-so-common-prayer.html ) I have an old hymn book from the church I grew up in. It is very small because it only has the lyrics not the music. (I grew up in a church that had services without instruments.) I love it because I can keep it in my bag and whenever I have a few minutes I can take it out and pray through a few songs. I personally prefer hymns for this rather than new choruses because in general they have more verses and a more thought out theological flow. Plus my “Sacred Pathways” (some of you will have listened to me teach on these based on a book by Gary Thomas) are “traditionalist”, “ascetic” and “intellectual” so of course I like praying old, dense hymns by myself. For this blog I chose one of my favorite hymns “Be Thou My Vision”. Sometimes it is harder for me to pray through well known hymns with out letting the melody distract me but I love this one. I challenge you to pray through it and let the Holy Spirit illuminate your thoughts before reading my thoughts below (illuminated or not).

Be Thou My Vision


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.


Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.


Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the 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.


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.


High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

Dallan Forgaill (translated from the Irish by
Mary E. Byrne, Versified by Eleanor H. Hull)


The line that stuck out most to me was “Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;” The dignity part I have thought about a lot. I am always struggling to find my self worth rooted in Christ. It was the “Delight” part that made me think. How do I delight in the Lord? I look forward to my times with Him and yet they often get postponed if something else comes along. Praying this has made me ask myself what I most delight in. What do I most look forward too? I pray that God could become my chief delight. He is the only thing worthy.

Mark Wallace