Hello. I am Dr. Kylie Fisher.
Welcome to heavenly harmonies. Mark, chapter ten, verse 45, says, for even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life as a ransom for many. The Lord Jesus came to earth as the unwearied servant of man's necessity, and he invites us to join with him in the privilege of serving God and others.
This idea is the theme of our hymn for today. O master, let me walk with thee. Stay with me to discover how the poetry of this hymn can draw us nearer to the heart of God.
In looking at our hymn for today, I'd like to start by reading a little bit from the book, the voice in speech and song. So I have mentioned this book and I've quoted from it in some of the other programmes, but sometimes I'm sort of missing out on hearing from it. So I thought maybe if I put it at the beginning of at least one programme, then we might have a chance to learn something from it, because it has such amazing insights.
So I'm going to read a few short sentences from page 432 of this book, the voice in speech and song. And there it says that singing as a part of religious service is as much an act of worship as is prayer. The heart must feel the spirit of the song to give it right expression.
And then another short quote. The next quote says, as a part of religious service, singing is as much an act of worship as is prayer. Indeed, many a song is prayer.
If the child or the singer is taught to realise this, he or she will think more of the meaning of the words he sings and will be more susceptible to their power. And so, beginning from our programme today, we actually have had some songs that you can really see that the words of at least one verse are definitely a prayer. But starting from today, I've realised that the songs that I've chosen without really having this intention, really reflect this statement, because you can see, as you look at the words of these songs, that they are really prayers.
And so, yeah, as we explore into their depth of meaning, it can help us to give right expression to these as songs as we sing them. And perhaps, like, I've got no idea who's going to be listening to this podcast. Perhaps you have been listening to this or to this recording as somebody who feels that they're not very good at singing.
Well, I would like to suggest that and even if you are a singer, this is also a good thing to do, that it's wonderful to actually think about the words of the hymn as a poem. And in this case, we can think about the words of the hymn as a prayer, and you can actually pray this as a prayer. And, yeah, it really helps.
I find my prayer life when I sometimes as I'm praying, the words of a hymn will come into my mind and I pray them as part of my prayer. And it's really powerful experience. And the words of poetry are so succinct and they just have such beauty as well that, I don't know, it's just something about that poetic form and expressing it as a poem just can really help to enlighten and enrich your spiritual life.
So I would definitely encourage you to do that. But let's look at it and look at this hymn, and hopefully we'll have some time to talk as well a bit about the actual musical expression, too, of these words. But, yeah, let's begin by exploring their scriptural meaning.
And so let's have a look at the first verse of this beautiful hymn. O master, let me walk with thee. And we can see from even the title, which is also sort of the part of the first line of this hymn, that, or could be, depending how you break it up, I guess it's probably four lines, four lines to each verse.
So therefore probably be the first line, o master, let me walk with thee. And we can see immediately that in this song we are directly addressing God, and we're really directly addressing Jesus, because when Jesus was here on earth, his disciples called him master. So that's what I like to think about when I think about this song.
So let's have a look at the words of the first verse. O master, let me walk with thee in lowly paths of service free tell me thy secret help me bear the strain of toil the fret of care. So that's the first verse.
And so let's break it down a little bit and think about what these words mean. So it begins with, let me walk with thee. O master, let me walk with thee.
And there's a number of individuals in the Bible that are described as walking with God, and it's just so inspirational to read about these people. So perhaps the first and the most famous of them is Enoch. And so Enoch, the mention of Enoch is found first in the Bible in Genesis, chapter five.
Yeah, there's a few different verses about him, but verse 22 is where it talks about Enoch walking with God. Genesis five. And verse 22 says, enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters.
And so it says there that Enoch walked with God. And then in the next chapter it says that. I think it was Enoch's great grandson, certainly one of his descendants.
Pretty sure it was his great grandson. Noah also walked with God. So that is in Genesis, chapter six and verse nine, it says Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations and Noah walked with God.
So we might wonder, what does this mean? Because sometimes we might sort of think that in order to walk with God that it might mean we need to go and shut ourselves in a cloister or just meditate all day thinking about nothing at all and not having any communication with other people. Is that what it means to be holy? Is that what it means to walk with God? Well, I would suggest that that's not really the picture that we have in the Bible. That's certainly not the picture that we have of Jesus'life.
And I think if we think carefully about the lives of Noah and also Enoch as they're described in the Bible, we can see that that's not how they lived. So Noah in particular, we have more description of Noah than what we do about Enoch. So Noah, you'll recall, is very famous because he was the one that built the ark.
And even many people that are not christians have probably heard of Noah's ark. So Noah actually built a boat. And so clearly he was not just off by himself, just meditating and never having any contact and communication with other people.
He built this boat. And while he did that, he also preached to people. So we can see that actually walking with God just means to please God in everything that we do and to live the way that he lives.
Let's look at a verse that I think explains this really well. And this is in the very small book of Amos. The very small book of Amos.
So Amos was a minor prophet. And so, yeah, his book's very small, a little bit hard to find. But Amos chapter three and verse three says, can two walk together? Except they be agreed? So clearly the hearts of Enoch and Noah were just so in tune with God that they pleased God in everything that they did.
And in fact, that's what the book of Hebrews in chapter eleven says about Enoch, that Enoch was so privileged, he was one of only two people to be translated to heaven without dying. And it says in Hebrews eleven, verse five, that before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. So the hearts of Enoch and Noah just so in tune with God that they pleased him in all that they did.
But this was also the experience of Jesus during his life here. On earth, he also lived in a way that pleased his heavenly father. And so, really, this song, know, enoch and noah, they both walked with God, it's true.
But this song is not like a song directed to Enoch and Noah and asking for their help. We're asking for the help of, you know, did Jesus experience the same sorts of things that we do? Well, we have been speaking about this in our programmes and we found that when Jesus came to earth, though he was the Lord of glory, when he was in heaven, he came to earth as the poorest of the poor. He was born in a manger.
And so we looked at that, when we looked at the song. Away in a manger, no crib for a bed. And so Jesus came to earth.
He was very poor, his parents were very poor. And we know that from the sacrifice that they brought at the dedication of Jesus. So Luke chapter two and verse 24 says that they brought a pair of turtle doves, and that was actually the sacrifice that the poorest class of people brought.
So depending on how wealthy you were, there were different sacrifices that God outlined that you could bring. And so if you were really, really poor, like people that were more wealthy had sheep or oxen and things like this, but God provided that even the poorest of people could still bring an offering that would be acceptable to him, because it's described in some of the Old Testament books as that with the turtle doves and with the pigeons, that this was such as he could get. And so if you were so poor that you did not even own an animal, you could go out and catch one in the field.
So, anyway, this was the class that Jesus was born into. He was born into a very poor class. And we know from Matthew chapter 13, we know that Jesus, when he was growing up, which is actually the part we've sort of been following a bit through the life of Christ, or we're following through the life of Christ in this series and in this season.
And so we've looked at Jesus birth and spent quite a lot of time looking at that. But now the next part of Christ's life that we're up to looking at is his childhood and his youth. And so we know from Matthew chapter 13 that when Jesus was a youth, he worked with his father as a carpenter.
And so we can see that from Matthew chapter 13 and verse 55, which says, speaking about Jesus, is not this the carpenter's son? So Jesus, when he was growing up and when he was a youth, he worked with his father from about the age of twelve up until he was about 30 years old, he worked as a carpenter, and back in those days it's pretty obvious there were no power tools. Carpenters worked hard, they had to cut down trees and everything was done by hand. And so Jesus really experienced probably much more labour and toil than what we have to experience.
And that's what this song is saying. O master, let me walk with thee in lowly paths of service free tell me thy secret, help me bear the strain of toil, the fret of care. So we know that throughout his life Jesus maintained a sinless purity.
He didn't sin, so he was know, despite the fact that he was doing all this hard labour, not a word of complaint came from his. So, you know, no matter how difficult our job may seem to be, yeah, just think of know, it's just an incredible thought to think of the son of God giving up his throne, giving up his glory, coming to earth and being know, sweating it out in the carpenter's shop. But this was what Jesus was doing.
So no matter how difficult our task may seem, it's never going to be as difficult as was the lot of. Yeah, he can really empathise with us, he can really understand how we feel. And when we just feel overwhelmed by our work, we can pray and we can plead with Jesus.
Tell me thy secret, help me bear the strain of toil the fret of care. So, yeah, the service that was really the keynote of the life of Christ is exemplified nowhere better than during his childhood. So, yeah, that's really amazing.
Let's go on now to the second verse and let's see what it has to say to us. Help me the slow of heart to move by some clear winning word of love teach me the wayward feet to stay and guide them in the homeward way. So as I was thinking about this, I thought when you're working hard and you're out in the hot sun, the other day I was out in the garden, it was very hot.
And, you know, when you're out there in the garden, you know, it's one thing to be doing your work, it's one thing to be doing it without complaining, but what if there's other people that you're working with that are taking a negative attitude, that are just not very easy to get on with? And I think that there's various classes of these kinds of people that are described in this verse. So it talks here about the slow of heart and we've all met people who are just. It takes a long time for them to actually get what you're saying about something.
So it talks there about the slow of heart and also talks about the wayward feet. That's talking about those who are just, their feet just seem to be just constantly headed for trouble. So what do we do with, when we're interacting with these kinds of people? Well, Jesus experienced the same thing he was with his disciples.
His public ministry on earth lasted for three and a half years. And during that time, he tried to explain to his disciples the nature of his mission and that he had come to earth to die, not to establish an earthly kingdom as they expected. But his disciples just did not get it.
And it was not actually until after the resurrection, the death and resurrection of Jesus, that Jesus was finally able to get through to the disciples. They still do not remember, many of them, what he had actually said. And so just like to look at a verse in Luke chapter 24 where Jesus was speaking to two of his disciples as they were walking along the road to Emmaus.
And this is Luke chapter 24 and verse 25, which says then he, that's Jesus, said unto them, o fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And so here we see that Jesus spoke to these disciples, and he said, you know, you're slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. And when we read statements like that, we have to think about in the context, because there's various different ways in which various different tones of voice in which you could say those words, and it could sound like Jesus is really being so, so critical.
But, yeah, we need to interpret it in the sense that he's just died for these disciples. And they actually were crying along the way and mourning and know, we thought that this was the one that was going to save Israel, when by his death, Jesus had actually done what they were wanting him to do. So Jesus had just such absolutely divine patience, and he relied upon his father's strength while he was here on earth.
And we can do the same when we're interacting with people that are really difficult. We can just pray, dear Lord, help me. I think the third verse actually brings out this idea.
Teach me thy patience still with thee in closer, dearer company. So it can be really easy when we're in a difficult situation to just lose heart and give up on God and just think, God can't help me in this situation. But I like it how it says they're still with these.
So we need know in those times when we're beset with difficulties, we just need to press closer to the heart of Christ. Just plead with him even more. That was how Christ was able to maintain that pure and sinless and spotless life while he was here.
On. So that's sort of the first half of the third verse. Let's look at the second.
Let me start again from the beginning of the third verse, and we'll go right through the third verse. Teach me thy patience still with thee in closer, dearer company in work that keeps faith sweet and strong, in trust that triumphs over wrong. So it's as we have faith in Christ that we can triumph over the sins that so easily beset us, as it says in the book of Hebrews.
So let's press on now to the fourth verse in hope that sends a shining ray far down the future's broadening way. In peace that only thou canst give with thee, o master, let me live. And so let's just.
In thinking about this final verse, when I think about this, the words from these, I think, really reflect on Jesus words in John, chapter 14. And these words were spoken on the night before Jesus died on the cross. These kind of like the last words that he spoke before he died.
Some of the last words that he spoke before he died. And we know that those words always have such significance. And so the disciples, as Jesus was trying to explain to them about what was going to happen and that he would soon be parted from them also going to heaven, the disciples became afraid.
But Jesus sought to comfort their hearts with words of hope. He said, let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God.
Believe also in me. And he also said in verse 27 of chapter 14, peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you.
Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. So no matter what our circumstances are, and no matter how we might feel inside, we might not even really feel peace.
But here is the promise that Jesus has for us, that if we cling to him, in fact, in a verse in Isaiah says, let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me. So when we cling to Christ, no matter what our feelings are, we can experience this amazing peace that he has to offer us. So, yeah, how would we express this musically just before we do listen to the recording of this? So, really, with pretty much every song that we're doing, there's always, I think, a deepening experience as you go through the song.
So you sort of have to kind of have a plan of how you're going to present the song, think about the words of the different verses, and I would really encourage you to try to have a deepening experience. And what I often try to do, which I think I've mentioned this before in other programmes, that the last verse of the song, you want to say really rich tone for that, and then try to think of some different emotions that belong with these different things. I think the first verse in this hymn would be extremely pleading.
Tell me thy secret help him bear the strain of toil the fret of care and then maybe have some different people in your mind about some of the challenging people that you have to deal with. And some people, we might consider them to be challenging, but then maybe they probably find us to be challenging as well. So good to keep that in mind when you're going through the second and third verses and then just probably save your richest tone for that last verse.
So let's now listen to this choir sing this song. O master, let me walk with thee o master, let me walk with thee only tell me I help me the soul of heart to my son clearly word of love teach me the way would be to say and guide them in the home homeward way teach me I shall see what I say sweet and strong it trust the trin rain for the of you I can with me all my soul let me just. Beautiful.
That was altar of praise chorale singing o master, let me walk with thee and. Yeah, so it's just so inspirational to think about the life of Christ when he was here on earth, those days of childhood and youth, when he was toiling in the carpenter's shop, then, as he went through his ministry, interacting with his disciples, that just did not get it. That's just really amazing.
And it's as we look to Christ, I believe that this hymn is saying that that is how we can have victory over sin and reflect more than just avoiding the negative, but really reflect the character of God. So psalm 16, verse eight says, I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. So let's just conclude with a brief prayer to ask for God's help to fix our eyes on Jesus so that we can be victorious as he was and reflect the character of God.
Dear God, we're just so grateful for the example of Christ living here on earth. We know that he was tempted more than we will ever be tempted. He experienced toil, he had difficult people to deal with, and yet he maintained a pure and sinless life.
So please help us, dear God, to be able to experience this same thing. And I just pray that this beautiful hymn, o master, let me walk with thee, may become part of our experience and that the beautiful prayer of this hymn can become part of our prayers prayer life, become part of our song life, and that we can also live it out in our lives. So thank you so much, dear God, for hearing and answering our prayer in Jesus name.
Amen. Well, thank you so much for joining me today on heavenly harmonies. Remember, you can listen to past programmes if you go to our website.
Click on the listen button and you'll find various different programmes there. You can also email us at
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But until then, goodbye and God bless.
