I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Isaiah 41:13

Introduction

portrait
Thomas A. Dorsey (1899–1993)

Words: Tho­mas A. Dor­sey, 1932.

Music: Adapt­ed by Tho­mas Dor­sey from the tune Mait­land, by George N. Al­len, 1844 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
George N. Allen (1812–1877)

Origin of the Song

Dorsey wrote this song in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois, af­ter his wife Net­tie died while giv­ing birth to a child (who al­so died short­ly there­af­ter). Dor­sey sang the song for his friend, Gos­pel singer Theo­dore Frye, and Frye’s choir sang it the next Sun­day at the Eb­en­ezer Bap­tist Church.

SPECIAL NOTICE: The song lyr­ics and MI­DI file for this par­ti­cu­lar piece of in­spi­aa­tion mu­sic are here for the per­son­al en­joy­ment of the vis­i­tors to the Cy­ber Hym­nal™, and are pro­vid­ed through the cour­te­sy of the co­py­right own­ers and War­ner Bros. Pub­li­cations. Please know that any dup­li­ca­tion, adap­ta­tion and/or trans­mis­sion of this co­py­right­ed mu­sic­al con­tent re­quires the prior writ­ten con­sent of the co­py­right own­ers and War­ner Bros. Pub­li­ca­tions U.S. Inc. Un­au­tho­rized us­es are an in­fringe­ment of the co­py­right laws of the Unit­ed States and oth­er coun­tries, and are pun­ish­a­ble there­un­der.

Lyrics

Precious Lord, take my hand,
Lead me on, let me stand,
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn;
Through the storm, through the night,
Lead me on to the light:

Refrain

Take my hand, pre­cious Lord,
Lead me home.

When my way grows drear,
Precious Lord, lin­ger near,
When my life is al­most gone,
Hear my cry, hear my call,
Hold my hand lest I fall:

Refrain

When the dark­ness ap­pears
And the night draws near,
And the day is past and gone,
At the ri­ver I stand,
Guide my feet, hold my hand:

Refrain