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Alone with none but you, my God

Authors:

Columba

Themes:

Scriptures:

Genesis 27:2
Genesis 32:24
Psalms 139:12
Psalms 27:1-6
Psalms 31:14-15
Psalms 39:4-5
Psalms 40:4
Psalms 90:12
Psalms 91:1-7
Ecclesiastes 8:8
John 10:28-29
Romans 12:1
Romans 14:8
Romans 8:28
2 Corinthians 4:1
2 Corinthians 4:16
Philippians 1:20-24
1 Timothy 1:16
2 Timothy 4:4

Book Number:

Alone with none but you, my God,
I journey on my way:
what need I fear, when you are near,
O King of night and day?
More safe am I within your hand
than if a host did round me stand.

2. My destined time is fixed by you
and death’s appointed hour;
though warriors strong around me throng
they could not halt its power:
no walls of stone defend us here
when comes your final messenger.

3. My life I yield to your decree,
and bow to your control
in peaceful calm, for from your arm
no power can snatch my soul:
no earthly omens can appal
the one who heeds God’s heavenly call.

4. The child of God need fear no ill,
his chosen, dread no foe;
we leave our fate with you, and wait
your bidding when to go:
for not from chance our comfort springs-
you are our trust, O King of kings!

The Christian Life - Submission and Trust

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Tune

Palmyra
Metre:
- 86 86 88
Composer:
- Summers, Joseph

The story behind the hymn

The sovereignty of God and the (often misrepresented) Celtic tradition are at one in this ancient hymn, this revision of which appeared in Praise Preview of 1998. The text begins by evoking the strange narrative of Genesis 32:24ff, but does not proceed with the story as Wesley does in Wrestling Jacob. Its attribution to the 6th-c Columba is traditional; an anonymous hand translated his Im aonaran dom ins an sliabh for the 3rd edn of the (Irish) Church Hymnal in 1919, and it is retained in the 5th (2000) edn with some revision, mainly in an inclusive direction (from ‘man’ in 2.5 and 3.6). The present version replaces ‘stay’ with ‘halt’ in 2.4; that stz formerly ended ‘… can me defend/ when thou thy messenger dost send.’ Similarly in stz 3, ‘snatch’ replaces ‘wrest’, and the last couplet revises ‘Could earthly omens e’er appal/ whoever heeds thy heavenly call’. The doctrine undergirding the hymn is that of others in this section, together with 2b on the Providence of God, eg 262.

The current Irish book prints EMAIN MACHA and TIBRADDEN as alternative tunes. For notes on Joseph Summers’ PALMYRA, see 413. The music team’s firm preference was for LOGOS, as featured in the music for PHRW and recorded on the first Praise! CD, but copyright permission to print was not given.

A look at the author

Columba

(Col[u]mcille, ‘the holy dove’), b Gartan, Co Donegal, Ireland 521, d Iona, Scotland 597. Born into a noble and powerful Irish family of the clan of Ui Neill, he was trained in monasteries in Ireland by (among others) Finnian of Ulster. He in turn was ordained in 551 and went on to plant several churches and other communities. In c563 he sailed with 12 companions to the island of Iona off the W coast of Scotland, land granted by King Conall mac Congaill. From there he spent the next 34 years spreading the faith and nurturing new Christian groups (‘encampments for God’) among the Celtic tribes in Ireland and as far as Argyll and the Hebrides, supported by local ‘kings’. Though never a bishop, he became the de facto church leader over a wide area of the W Highlands, conducting strategic ordinations; Brude, king of the Picts, was converted from paganism to be one of his followers. Some of his hymns were written in Lat, some in the Irish language. An early biography was written by (St) Adomnan. Nos.289, 755.