Today's Daily Encounter 29th September 2022

Today's Daily Encounter 29th September 2022

Beloved Hymns: He Leadeth Me

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.1  

Dr. Joseph H. Gilmore gave the following account of writing his famous hymn on God's leading:

As a young man recently graduated…, I was supplying, for a couple of Sundays, the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia. At the midweek service, on the 26th of March, 1862, I set out to give the people an exposition of the 23rd Psalm, which I have given before on three or four occasions, but this time I did not get further than the words “He Leadeth Me”. Those words took hold of me as they had never done before, and I saw in them a significance… of which I had never dreamed.   

It was the darkest hour of the Civil War; my subconscious mind may have led me to realize that God's leadership is the one significant fact in human experience, that it makes no difference how we are led, or whither we are led, so long as we are sure God is leading us.   

At the close of the meeting, while in the parlor of my host, Deacon Watson, a few of us kept on talking about the thought I had emphasized; and then and there, I penciled the hymn, talking and writing at the same time, then handed it to my wife and thought no more about it. She sent it to The Watchman and Reflector, a paper published in Boston, where it was first printed. I did not know until 1865 that my hymn had been set to music by William B. Bradbury. I had gone to Rochester to preach. Going into their Chapel… I picked up a hymnal to see what they were singing and opened it at my own hymn, “He Leadeth Me”.  

He leadeth me, O blessed thought! O words with Heavenly comfort fraught!  

What -e’er I do, where -e’er I be, still ‘tis God's hand that leadeth me.

 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.2  

Suggested Prayer: Dear Lord, there are times when I want to follow my own path and I step out of your will. But you are so merciful to lead me back to where you want me. What a blessed thought! In Jesus’ name, Amen.  

    1. Psalm 23:3 (KJV).

    2. “He Leadeth Me”, hymn by Joseph H. Gilmore (1862).  

Today’s Encounter was written by: Veronica B.  

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