"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 vision
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
Riches I heed not
Or 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 by my vision
O Ruler of all
Dear God, it’s interesting to really sit with the words of this song. Parsing out the early English is slightly tricky. For example, the third and fourth lines say, “Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.” Whoa! Let me think about for a second. I’ve sung that line a hundred times, but what does it mean? Naught = Nothing. Therefore, I’m going to saying that it means “nothing is anything to me except you.” It’s not as cool sounding when I put it in my modern language and much more poetic, but the meaning is also a little obscured from my 21st-century English.
Maybe I should just translate this into modern English:
Let me see with your eyes
Lord of my heart
Nothing is anything to me
Except you
You are the best of my thoughts
Day and night
Whether I am aways or asleep
Your presence is my light
Let me get my wisdom from you
Show me what truth is
Let me be always with you
And you with me
You are my great Father
I'm your devoted son
Live in me
And I will be one with you
I am not impressed by riches
And I do not care about impressing people
My inheritance is only you
Now and forever
You and you alone
Are first in my heart
King of heaven
You are my treasure
King of heaven
You have won the victory for me
May I reach the joy of heaven
The spectacular heaven to come
My heart is your heart
Whatever happens
I still want to see with your eyes
And have you rule over everything
Okay, so a lot of poets could probably take apart what I just translated. My poet wife would probably have a field day with the inaccuracy of my interpretations. But the sentiment really works, and I’m going to stick with it. This is a great song of devotion to you. Denying myself and embracing you as my everything. Show me how to really, effectively, make you my everything.
I pray to you, Father, in Jesus and with the Holy Spirit,
Amen
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