Scripture Verse

Those who hope in the Lord…will soar on wings like eagles. Isaiah 40:31

Introduction

Words: May Row­land, 1928. Ap­peared in The New Hym­nal for Am­eri­can Youth, ed­it­ed by H. Au­gus­tine Smith (New York & Lon­don: D. Ap­ple­ton-Cen­tury, 1930), num­ber 289. This hymn won a con­test spon­sored by The Hymn So­ci­ety, which sought a Hymn for Air­men. Charles Lind­bergh had just com­plet­ed the first nonstop flight from New York to Par­is in May 1927, spark­ing a glo­bal av­ia­tion craze. The So­ci­ety ca­pi­tal­ized on this cul­tur­al mo­ment by search­ing for a sac­red text de­di­cat­ed to pi­lots and avia­tion.

Music: El­la (Ren­dle) Li­ly Ren­dle, 1928 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Row­land or Ren­dle (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

God of the shin­ing hosts that range on high,
Lord of the ser­aphs serv­ing day and night,
Hear us for these, our squad­rons of the sky,
And give to them the shel­ter of Thy might.

Thine are the ar­rows of the storm cloud’s breath,
Thine, too, the tem­pest or the ze­phyr still;
Take in Thy keep­ing those, who fac­ing death,
Bravely go forth to do a na­tion’s will.

High in the track­less space that paves Thy throne,
Claim by Thy love these souls in dan­ger’s thrall;
Be Thou their pi­lot through the great un­known,
Then shall they mount as eag­les and not fall.