Precious Lord

When my way grows drear precious Lord linger near

When my light is almost gone

Hear my cry, hear my call

Hold my hand lest I fall

Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home

Precious Lord, take my hand

Lead me on, let me stand

I'm tired, Im weak, Im alone

Through the storm, through the night

Lead me on to the light

Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home. Thomas Dorsey

  The songwriter of Precious Lord was Thomas Dorsey. Dorsey was a Blues musician and songwriter from Alabama. This powerful song along with the famous song Peace in the Valley were written from Thomas Dorsey’s struggles with events, circumstances and remembrances that were difficult but life defining as he walked through the sadness of each one.  His simple bu powerful words are very similar to the words of the Psalmist when he faced  struggles in his life, thousands of years before the Thomas Dorsey dwelt with very similar situations and experiences.

    There are hard moments in all of our lives.  Stormy moments, dark nights, moments when it is hard to stand, moments when our eyes are full of tears, moments when we want to give up and moments when you just need a hand.  These are the moments when we need the hand of our precious Lord. It is so wonderful to know that our Father in heaven has heard our cries in our difficult moments and His grip is sure as it lifts us up out of the pit and leads us home.

     David wrote of difficult moments himself and although we may not know the melody of attached to his words; we cannot miss the similarity of the expressions in his songs to the words in a song like Precious Lord.  Thousands of years separate these two great songwriters and yet the feelings that they felt are so similar. They had the same hope for their lives and the same answer for the difficult situations they faced.  They both needed the same precious Lord.  It was the same precious Lord they both knew that was reaching out for them with a great love in the difficult moments they both faced.  We have the same precious Lord as well and He reaches for our hand to lead us home as well. It is not just our home in heaven He takes us to, but the wonderful home we find as we step through the doorways of trial, tribulation and trouble into the place of care and comfort where He dwells.  Take our hand precious Lord and lead us home.

“O Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me. O Lord, you brought me up from the grave, You spared me from going down into the pit (Psalm 30:2-3).

Suggested Reading Psalm 30