Thoughts on a benediction

"God of our weary years, God of our silent tears...."

Today as the inauguration ceremony was concluding, a frail elderly gentleman shuffled to the podium and uttered these words. As soon as I heard them I felt a chord strum deep within me. I know I haven't heard them before but I was compelled to look up the phrase.

I found that the Rev Lowery was quoting part of James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing" also known as the Negro National Anthem.

 Here it is in its entirety:

Lift Every Voice and Sing

Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered;
Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.

Amen.

Say amen.

~K!

Comments

[Barbara]

Though Rev. Lowery's prayer wasn't really a benediction, it certainly was powerful. Thanks for posting the whole poem.
Barbara

[SuperDave]

With the emancipation proclamation being signed only 141 years ago, there are bound to be some who have heard stories of slavery told by those who experienced it. Let us never forget.