God Speaks Through an Old Irish Poem

As we continue in our "new normal" of church services, our pastor is planning an old-fashioned agape meal since we cannot meet together to celebrate communion.  She challenged several of us to recommend a hymn or song or to share some type of reflections with the rest of the congregation through our Zoom service. She had shared with me that the theme of the main message would be vision, so I decided to pick the hymn "Be Thou My Vision" because it seemed to fit the theme. As I really looked at the hymn and did a little research on it, I discovered something. 

It was originally an Irish poem from at least 10-11^th century, but possibly earlier. This poem was a prayer for protection. How appropriate for our situation right now. In 1905, it was translated into English by Mary Byrne.  This was a translation of just the poem, it was not in verse-form at that time.  The poem was written in verse/hymn-form by Eleanor Hull in 1912.  As I looked at Mary Byrne’s original translation, I was really struck by several of the stanzas.  They seemed to me so much clearer in meaning than can be found in the hymn, especially the second stanza.

Be thou my vision O Lord of my heart
None other is aught but the King of the seven heavens.

Be thou my meditation by day and night.
May it be thou that I behold even in my sleep.  

This really struck me “be my meditation that I behold even in my sleep”.  We are familiar with the part that says by day and night, but the second line really just reeled it in for me…..even in my sleep.

 

The poem goes on to request: Be thou my speech, my father, my shelter, my stronghold, every good thing to my body and soul, the constant guardian.  So where I thought this hymn was going to be appropriate to the theme of the day; it is appropriate to life!

Following is the original translation of the Old Irish Poem. See if it speaks to you as much as it did to me. There's little more I can add to this as the poem says it all.

Be thou my vision O Lord of my heart
None other is aught but the King of the seven heavens.  

Be thou my meditation by day and night.
May it be thou that I behold even in my sleep.

Be thou my speech, be thou my understanding.
Be thou with me, be I with thee

Be thou my father, be I thy son.
Mayst thou be mine, may I be thine.

Be thou my battle-shield, be thou my sword.
Be thou my dignity, be thou my delight.

Be thou my shelter, be thou my stronghold.
Mayst thou raise me up to the company of the angels.

Be thou every good to my body and soul.
Be thou my kingdom in heaven and on earth.

Be thou solely chief love of my heart.
Let there be none other, O high King of Heaven.

Till I am able to pass into thy hands,
My treasure, my beloved through the greatness of thy love

Be thou alone my noble and wondrous estate.
I seek not men nor lifeless wealth.

Be thou the constant guardian of every possession and every life.
For our corrupt desires are dead at the mere sight of thee.

Thy love in my soul and in my heart --
Grant this to me, O King of the seven heavens.

O King of the seven heavens grant me this --
Thy love to be in my heart and in my soul.

With the King of all, with him after victory won by piety,
May I be in the kingdom of heaven O brightness of the son.

Beloved Father, hear, hear my lamentations.
Timely is the cry of woe of this miserable wretch.

O heart of my heart, whatever befall me,
O ruler of all, be thou my vision.