Wait! Who Wrote That?
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Stories
But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you, to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your God my God….” (vv. 1-16)
Sometimes the leading of God’s Spirit seems clear and obvious. In the 23rd Psalm, for instance, one sees very clearly the way the Lord, as a shepherd, leads us, the sheep of God’s flock. We’re led to green pastures, beside still waters, beyond the valley of the shadow of death, restoring our souls, setting out a table, and dwelling with us forever. The singer of the psalm is very aware of the way God leads us.
But other times, as in the book of Ruth, God’s leading and direction is clearer only in retrospect. In this story of death and desperation, of lost hope, and eventually restoration, and the incorporation of an outsider into the royal line, we don’t see God mentioned, invoked, or referred to, yet it is God who is leading Ruth and Boaz to do the right thing.
This brings to mind the story behind the popular hymn “He Leadeth Me.” The words are by Joseph H. Gilmore (1834-1918). In Ira D. Sankey’s 1906 volume, Sankey’s Story of the Gospel Hymns, he writes:
“I had been talking,” said Mr. Gilmore, “at the Wednesday evening lecture of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, in 1862. The 23rd psalm was my theme, and I had been especially impressed with the blessedness of being led by God—of the mere fact of his leadership, altogether apart from the way in which he leads us and what he is leading us to.”
Elsewhere, Gilmore remembered later that whatever he had intended to say about the famous psalm, “I did not get further than the words ‘he leadeth me.’ Those words took hold of me as they had never done before. I saw in them a significance and beauty of which I had never dreamed.”
Returning to Sankey’s story, Gilmore said, “At the close of the service we adjourned to Deacon Watson’s home, at which I was stopping. We still held before our minds and hearts the thought which I had just emphasized. During the conversation, in which several participated, the blessedness of God’s leadership so grew upon me that I took out my pencil, wrote the hymn just as it stands to-day, handed it to my wife—and thought no more about it. She sent it without my knowledge to ‘The Watchman and Reflector,’ and there it first appeared in print. Three years later I went to Rochester to preach for the Second Baptist Church. On entering the chapel I took up a hymn-book, thinking, ‘I wonder what they sing.’ The book opened at ‘He leadeth me,’ and that was the first time I knew my hymn had found a place among the songs of the church. I shall never forget the impression made upon me by coming then and there in contact with my own assertion of God’s leadership.”
Later, when this church moved to a new location the United Gas Improvement Company of Philadelphia constructed a new building on this site. They then placed a commemorative plaque on the wall with the first line of the hymn in memory of this event — “He leadeth me! O, blessed thought! O, words with heavenly comfort fraught.”
The tune was composed by William Bradbury (1816-1868), editor of The New York Musical Review for many years, who edited over fifty volumes of music, including many of his own tunes.
Gilmore was to say about this hymn, “It makes no difference how we are led, or where we are led, as long as we are sure God is leading us.”
But, as I mentioned earlier, in this story of Ruth there is no mention of God’s direction — only the Moabite Ruth’s knowledge of the Torah’s injunction about sharing the harvest with the gleaners, Naomi’s assertion that her cousin Boaz will do the right thing, and the determination of Boaz to act righteously, all of which is rewarded with harvest and hope for Ruth, Naomi, Boaz, the late Elimelech’s line, and ultimately all of biblical history with David and ultimately Jesus as the result.
(Ira D. Sankey, Sankey’s Story of the Gospel Hymns,” 1906, Philadelphia, The Sunday School Time Companion, Handbook to The Hymnal, William Chalmers Covert, Editor, Presbyterian Board of Christian Education, Philadelphia, 1936, and Hymnal Companion, Joan A Fyock Writer/Compiler, Lani Wright Editor, Brethren Press 1996.)
Sometimes the leading of God’s Spirit seems clear and obvious. In the 23rd Psalm, for instance, one sees very clearly the way the Lord, as a shepherd, leads us, the sheep of God’s flock. We’re led to green pastures, beside still waters, beyond the valley of the shadow of death, restoring our souls, setting out a table, and dwelling with us forever. The singer of the psalm is very aware of the way God leads us.
But other times, as in the book of Ruth, God’s leading and direction is clearer only in retrospect. In this story of death and desperation, of lost hope, and eventually restoration, and the incorporation of an outsider into the royal line, we don’t see God mentioned, invoked, or referred to, yet it is God who is leading Ruth and Boaz to do the right thing.
This brings to mind the story behind the popular hymn “He Leadeth Me.” The words are by Joseph H. Gilmore (1834-1918). In Ira D. Sankey’s 1906 volume, Sankey’s Story of the Gospel Hymns, he writes:
“I had been talking,” said Mr. Gilmore, “at the Wednesday evening lecture of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, in 1862. The 23rd psalm was my theme, and I had been especially impressed with the blessedness of being led by God—of the mere fact of his leadership, altogether apart from the way in which he leads us and what he is leading us to.”
Elsewhere, Gilmore remembered later that whatever he had intended to say about the famous psalm, “I did not get further than the words ‘he leadeth me.’ Those words took hold of me as they had never done before. I saw in them a significance and beauty of which I had never dreamed.”
Returning to Sankey’s story, Gilmore said, “At the close of the service we adjourned to Deacon Watson’s home, at which I was stopping. We still held before our minds and hearts the thought which I had just emphasized. During the conversation, in which several participated, the blessedness of God’s leadership so grew upon me that I took out my pencil, wrote the hymn just as it stands to-day, handed it to my wife—and thought no more about it. She sent it without my knowledge to ‘The Watchman and Reflector,’ and there it first appeared in print. Three years later I went to Rochester to preach for the Second Baptist Church. On entering the chapel I took up a hymn-book, thinking, ‘I wonder what they sing.’ The book opened at ‘He leadeth me,’ and that was the first time I knew my hymn had found a place among the songs of the church. I shall never forget the impression made upon me by coming then and there in contact with my own assertion of God’s leadership.”
Later, when this church moved to a new location the United Gas Improvement Company of Philadelphia constructed a new building on this site. They then placed a commemorative plaque on the wall with the first line of the hymn in memory of this event — “He leadeth me! O, blessed thought! O, words with heavenly comfort fraught.”
The tune was composed by William Bradbury (1816-1868), editor of The New York Musical Review for many years, who edited over fifty volumes of music, including many of his own tunes.
Gilmore was to say about this hymn, “It makes no difference how we are led, or where we are led, as long as we are sure God is leading us.”
But, as I mentioned earlier, in this story of Ruth there is no mention of God’s direction — only the Moabite Ruth’s knowledge of the Torah’s injunction about sharing the harvest with the gleaners, Naomi’s assertion that her cousin Boaz will do the right thing, and the determination of Boaz to act righteously, all of which is rewarded with harvest and hope for Ruth, Naomi, Boaz, the late Elimelech’s line, and ultimately all of biblical history with David and ultimately Jesus as the result.
(Ira D. Sankey, Sankey’s Story of the Gospel Hymns,” 1906, Philadelphia, The Sunday School Time Companion, Handbook to The Hymnal, William Chalmers Covert, Editor, Presbyterian Board of Christian Education, Philadelphia, 1936, and Hymnal Companion, Joan A Fyock Writer/Compiler, Lani Wright Editor, Brethren Press 1996.)
