He Leadeth Me

• Genesis 24:27
  (hymns)
• Genesis 28:15
  (hymns)
• Exodus 15:13
  (hymns)
• Exodus 17:1-6
  (hymns)
• Joshua 3:13
  (hymns)
• Psalm 5:8
  (hymns)
• Psalm 23
  (hymns)
• Psalm 25:4-5
  (hymns)
• Psalm 27
  (hymns)
• Psalm 28:2
  (hymns)
• Psalm 32:8
  (hymns)
• Psalm 37:24
  (hymns)
• Psalm 43:3
  (hymns)
• Psalm 48:14
  (hymns)
• Psalm 68:8
  (hymns)
• Psalm 73:23-24
  (hymns)
• Psalm 139:1-12
  (hymns)
• Psalm 139:24
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 12:13
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 40:11
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 41:8-20
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 42:16
  (hymns)
• Isaiah 48:17
  (hymns)
• Matthew 8:19
  (hymns)
• John 10:1-18
  (hymns)
• John 10:27-28
  (hymns)
• John 12:26
  (hymns)
• John 21:19
  (hymns)
• Romans 8:28
  (hymns)
• Romans 12:1-2
  (hymns)
• 1 Corinthians 15:55
  (hymns)
• 1 Corinthians 15:57
  (hymns)
• Philippians 4:10-13
  (hymns)
• 1 Peter 2:21
  (hymns)
• Revelation 14:4
  (hymns)

• Year A, Lent, Third Sunday
• Year A, Lent, Fourth Sunday
  This is recommended for Year A, Lent, Fourth Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #440.
• Year A, Easter season, Fourth Sunday
  This is recommended for Year A, Easter season, Fourth Sunday by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #440.
• Year A, Easter season, Fourth Sunday
  Related to Psalm 23 (LUYH)
• Year A, Ordinary Time, Proper 26 (31)
• Year B, Advent, Second Sunday
• Year B, Epiphany season, Fourth Sunday
• Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 11 (16)
  This is recommended for Year B, Ordinary Time, Proper 11 (16) by 2 hymnal lectionary indexes including Lift Up Your Hearts: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs #440.

On a Wednesday evening, Joseph Gilmore was preaching at a mid-week prayer service on the topic of Psalm 23. He wrote later, “I set out to give the people an exposition of the 23rd Psalm, but I got no 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…At the close of the meeting a few of us kept on talking about the thoughts which I had emphasized; and then and there, on a back page of my sermon notes, I penciled the hymn just as it stands today, handed it to my wife, and thought no more of it…She sent it without my knowledge to the Watchman and Reflector magazine, and there it first appeared in print December 4, 1862” (Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 616).

Lectio Devina is a common devotional practice in which one spends a significant amount of time reflecting and meditating on one verse of Scripture, or a short passage. It is amazing what the Holy Spirit can say to us when we take time to listen and ponder, but also, like Gilmore, what we hear when we least expect it, such as when we read through as familiar a passage as Psalm 23.

Text:

Gilmore’s text remains largely unchanged from the day it was penned. Most hymnals include four stanzas and a chorus, though some hymnals, such as Worship and Rejoice and Sing With Me leave out the original second verse, “Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom….” Like the psalm after which this hymn was written, the verses declare our trust in God, wherever we are – whether in stormy seas, Eden’s garden, or on death’s door. Each verse provides a different scenario in which we need God to guide us, and the refrain acts as a response in which we profess that God does guide us and will be our Shepherd at all times.

Tune:

The tune AUGHTON (HE LEADETH ME) was written by William Bradbury for Gilmore’s text after seeing it in the Boston Watchman and Reflector. He arranged the hymn into a stanza/refrain structure and added the last line of the refrain to fit his tune. Like much of Bradbury’s work, it is a simple tune that can be sung in a variety of ways. Soloists might prefer to sing the hymn at a slower tempo, but when sung by the congregation, the tempo should clip along nicely else it would drag. It is also tempting to add fermatas to the end of the second and third lines, but while this might be okay for a soloist, it can be confusing for a congregation, and would need a lot of emphasis and direction from the worship leader.

When/Why/How:

This hymn can be sung at any time during the liturgical year, because there are moments every day when we must profess our trust in God. Specific services where this hymn would be appropriate are services of prayer and healing, services with a theme of God’s hand at work in the world, or questioning why bad things happen, or when a passage on Jesus as the Good Shepherd is used as the sermon text. It would be a very fitting hymn of response to the reading of Psalm 23, the Prayers of the People, or the Assurance of Pardon.

Suggested music resources:

• Hopson, Hal H. The Creative Use of the Piano in Worship.
• Callahan, Charles. Partita on He Leadeth Me - Organ
• Sherman, Arnold. He Leadeth Me - Handbells, paired with "Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us"

Laura de Jong,
Hymnary.org

FlexScores are available in the Media section below.