Music & HymnsHe Leadeth Me

"He leadeth me beside still waters, He restoreth my soul." Psalm 23:1-3

Courtesy of Rush Rhees Library

Words: Joseph Henry Gilmore, 1862.

Music: William Batchelder Bradbury, Golden Censer (New York: 1864)

Gilmore wrote these words after preaching one day at the First Baptist Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had not meant them for publication, but his wife sent them to The Watchman and Reflector in Boston, Massachusetts, which printed them (December 4, 1862). Equally curious was the fact that Gilmore was not told when the hymn was set to music. In 1865, he visited the Second Baptist Church in Rochester, New York, to preach as a ministerial candidate. When he picked up the hymnal to see what the congregational was singing, he found it was his own hymn, "He Leadeth Me."

He leadeth me, O blessèd thought!
O words with heavenly comfort fraught!
Whate'er I do, where'er I be
Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.

Refrain

He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful follower I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.

Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom,
Sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom,
By waters still, over troubled sea,
Still 'tis His hand that leadeth me.

Refrain

Lord, I would place my hand in Thine,
Nor ever murmur nor repine;
Content, whatever lot I see,
Since 'tis my God that leadeth me.

Refrain

And when my task on earth is done,
When by Thy grace the victory's won,
E'en death's cold wave I will not flee,
Since God through Jordan leadeth me.

Refrain

Hymns supplied through the gracious generosity of the Cyber Hymnal Website