When I speak of hymns, I know I’m dating myself. My teenage years in the late ’60s and early ’70s came at the heart of the Scripture songs and choruses. It was the beginning of what we now call the contemporary music movement in the church.

While I enjoyed those songs greatly and sang them often, the hymns still pull at my heartstrings.

Hymns born out of tragedy, great exaltation, and the rhythms of everyday living spoke to the experience of nearly every believer. How often I have sung “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” “How Great Thou Art,” “When Peace Like a River,” “Be Thou My Vision,” “Marvelous Grace,” “Just As I Am.” The list goes on and on.

These past few months, a wonderful old Welsh hymn has been dropped into my soul by the Holy Spirit as a prayer for this season of my life — Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.

The title alone has been the ending of many prayers.

Retirement. Moving. Selling one home to purchase another. A new community — new church, new doctor, new dentist, new barber, new grocery store, new utilities, new neighbors. Though it is “home ground,” twenty-six years has changed it — new roads, new stores, old services relocated — stirrings on every side.

And out of that seeming chaos came this simple prayer:

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah.

We are all familiar with GPS — the Global Positioning System. The technology is woven into our daily lives. It’s in our phones, TVs, computers, watches, automobiles, planes, trains — you name it. If it has a computer, it can be located by GPS.

I say, “Hey, Siri…”

Maybe you say, “Hey, Alexa…”

And we ask an artificial voice to guide us to our destination.

May I suggest another meaning for GPS?

God’s Positioning System.

Instead of always running to something artificial, what if we ran to Someone real?

The author of this beautiful hymn, William Williams, knew something about pilgrimage — about wandering and weakness and dependence. His words still carry the prayer of every traveler who knows he cannot guide himself.

May this song be dropped into your heart today as it has been into mine.

Guide Me, O My Great Redeemer

Guide me, O my great Redeemer,

pilgrim through this barren land;

I am weak, but you are mighty;

hold me with your powerful hand.

Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,

feed me now and evermore,

feed me now and evermore.

Open now the crystal fountain,

where the healing waters flow.

Let the fire and cloudy pillar

lead me all my journey through.

Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,

ever be my strength and shield,

ever be my strength and shield.

When I tread the verge of Jordan,

bid my anxious fears subside.

Death of death, and hell’s destruction,

land me safe on Canaan’s side.

I will ever sing to Thee

I will ever sing to Thee

Amen!