Take My Hand, Precious Lord: Thomas Dorsey and Psalm 73:23

Some songs are born in the darkest hour. Thomas A. Dorsey's story, as recorded on Wikipedia, is one of them.

Dorsey grew up in Georgia and made his name in Chicago as a blues pianist and composer, playing with Ma Rainey and recording as "Georgia Tom". After a spiritual awakening he turned to sacred music, and by 1932 he was music director at Pilgrim Baptist Church and a co-founder of what became the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses. Some churches resisted his lively style, and he joked that he had been "kicked out of the best churches in the country".

Then, in 1932, his wife Nettie died in childbirth, and their son died a day later. His grief led him to write "Take My Hand, Precious Lord". The song grew far beyond that room and was sung around the world, even by strangers in Damascus who asked him to lead it.

Key verse (KJV), Psalm 73:23-24: "Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory."

Prayer point: Lord, hold our hand where we cannot see the road, and turn our hardest seasons into songs of testimony.

Over to you: When did you most feel God holding your hand through a hard season? Which hymn carried you through it?

Sources: Wikipedia (Thomas A. Dorsey).
Photo: Pilgrim Baptist Church, Chicago, Harold Allen / HABS, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons