Certainly one of the distinguishing marks of a Christian is a desire and willingness to know and do the will of God. And that doesn’t just mean to know God’s will in a particular situation or decision a person is facing, such as choosing a college, considering what job offer to accept, or evaluating what person to marry. No, it’s also a matter of everyday decisions about how to handle a persistent temptation, what needs to be done to reconcile with an estranged friend, or the perspective to understand the many disturbing things transpiring in our culture.
In the Bible, God promises to guide us. Some of that guidance comes through our knowing and applying general principles in His Word to specific situations. For example, if we are seeking to know His will about a matter that involves moral principles, He has already revealed enough in the Bible for us to know what His will would be at that moment. A young woman facing an unexpected pregnancy has no right to pray and ask God to show her whether or not to schedule an abortion. He has already told us in the Ten Commandments that we are not to commit murder, and more specifically in Psalm 139 that life begins in the womb, as we were knit together in those secret places.
A failure to seek the Lord’s guidance is one of the things that marked the sad decline of King Saul, as recorded in 1 Samuel. After such a hopeful beginning, he foolishly and impetuously acted without consulting the Lord, even consulting the medium at Endor instead of the Lord, and wound up doing things that God had forbidden. In contrast, we read of David repeatedly seeking to know God’s will before acting, and then following through once God answered his prayer. In James 1:5 we read the promise that if any of lacks wisdom, we should ask the Lord, who gives generously.
A number of David’s Psalms are prayers for guidance, and include assurances that God will hear such prayers and guide His people in their decision-making. In Psalm 25:12 we have this promise: “Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will He instruct in the way that he should choose.” And in very similar words we have this in Psalm 32:8, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.”
We need to be careful of the way that we follow in life, because, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 16:25). The reason for this is that “The way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). Therefore, we should strive to, “Enter by the narrow gate,” knowing that, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it,” but, “Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). The means by which we find this way is Jesus Christ, because He alone is, “The way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
Our hymnals will usually include an entire section of hymns about “guidance” and God’s leading us. These come to mind. “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah,” “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us,” “He Leadeth Me: O Blessed Thought,” “Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me,” and “All the Way My Savior Leads Me.” But one of the best is “Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord,” written in 1919 by Mansell Ramsey. The hymn is based on the text of Psalm 27:11, “Teach me Thy way, O LORD; lead me in a straight path.”
Benjamin Mansell Ramsey (1849-1923) was an English organist and prolific amateur composer, best remembered for this text and for the 1920 tune he wrote to go with it, CAMACHA. He was a music teacher at Bournemouth Grammar School and secretary of the Bournemouth Musical Association on the southeast coast of England. He was conductor of the amateur orchestra there through the 1880s and was involved with the town’s Municipal Orchestra in 1883. He composed songs for children, wrote poems, carols, and piano pieces, as well as works on music theory.
Ramsey’s hymn text stresses the idea of our needing to learn God’s way. The phrase “Teach me Thy way” comes thirteen times in the four stanzas. “The Way of the LORD” is drawn from the Old Testament, as in reference to God’s commandment s (Deuteronomy 5:33). The phrase means that we should ask, “What course shall I take to please You, and to discharge my duty, and to save myself from ruin.”
It was not long before the hymn began to have wide popular usage among student groups in England and gradually spread to earnest believers in other places who genuinely desired to have a greater knowledge of and closer walk with their Lord. During the last year of his life, Ramsey was in poor health, but he organized and conducted a choral society in the village of Chichester before he died at West Wittering, Chichester, in Sussex, England. One of the hymn’s first known appearances in printed form was in a leaflet published by John T. Park in 1925. Today it is found in many evangelical hymnals.
In stanza 1, we ask four times that God would teach us His way. How helpful to think of the Lord not only as Redeemer but also as Teacher, with the rich associations that word brings to mind as we realize our position as learners. His “way” is the entire breadth of information about His person, His character, His plan, and His purpose. The only way we can know this is to learn it from the one who said, “I am the way” (John 14:6). This reminds us that doesn’t only mean that He KNOWs the way, He IS the way; we need Him! And the primary manner in which we gain this is from scripture, which is “a lamp to our feet and a light to our path” (Psalm 119:105). This is consistent with what we know of the Holy Spirit, who inspired the Scripture, and whom Jesus promised would come to guide us into all the truth (John 16:13). All this is ours from the “guiding grace” Mansell mentions in this stanza. And the phrase, “Help me to walk aright, more by faith, less by sight” obviously comes straight from 2 Corinthians 5:7. Then the final phrase, “Lead me with heav’nly light,” is based on the main scripture source for the idea of the hymn, Psalm 27:11, “Teach me Thy way, O Lord.”
Teach me Thy way, O Lord; teach me Thy way!
Thy guiding grace afford; teach me Thy way!
Help me to walk aright, more by faith, less by sight;
Lead me with heav’nly light; teach me Thy way!
In stanza 2, we find a text packed full with five of the common conditions in our lives in which we need this “teaching” from the Lord. First, it is “when I am sad at heart,” whether the sadness because of the loss of a loved one, or the sadness of conviction of sin, or the sadness of deteriorating moral conditions around us, or the sadness of advancing age and failing health. In each of these, we need the Lord to teach us His way, not only to console us, but to show us how to respond, and to give us the ability to follow His teaching at that point (John 16:20-22). Second, it is “when earthly joys depart,” whether the joys of those times of peace in our lives when everything seems to have been “going our way,” or the joys of relaxation when free from stress at work with time for rest, or the joys of financial resources to pursue dreams and travel and security, times when we remember that He has promised to make our joy full (John 15:11). Third, it is “in hours of loneliness,” perhaps when friends have turned on us, or when we are in a situation where there is no one to help or rescue us, or when it seems that He has abandoned or forgotten us, or when we are surrounded by the threats and hostility of unbelievers, and we remember that He has promised never to leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:6). Fourth, it is “in times of dire distress,” the times when the diagnosis could mean major surgery or even death, or the impending loss of a home due to foreclosure, or the unexpected loss of employment, when we remember that He has promised to cause all things to work together for our good and for His glory (Romans 8:28). And fifth, it is also “in failure or success” that we need Him to teach us His way to know how to handle those two opposites, lest we succumb to pride or despair (Philippians 4:11-13).
When I am sad at heart, teach me Thy way!
When earthly joys depart, teach me Thy way!
In hours of loneliness, in times of dire distress,
In failure or success, teach me Thy way!
In stanza 3, we add two more circumstances in which we ask, “Teach me Thy way, O Lord,” realizing that if He doesn’t teach us, we will be left to our own inadequate and faulty understanding and weak ability to respond in the right way. Both of these are occasions when we will become anxious as we will not know what to do in the face of these serious challenges. First it is “when doubts and fears arise.” It might be doubting if God will really forgive us when we have succumbed to that same temptation again, when Satan reminds us that our sins are so egregious, or when our fears of being cast off by God for our shortcomings, or when we are filled with anxiety, wondering if we will be able to persevere to the end. Second it is “when storms o’erspread the skies.” We can probably think of an almost unlimited number of possibilities for these storms. The imagery brings to mind the dark clouds that build on the horizon as a severe thunderstorm approaches, one that could produce not just heavy rain and hail but even a devastating tornado. Might this be the soldier on the battlefield as rockets and artillery rain down upon him, or the young woman in labor when the attending physicians become anxious over a potentially major problem in the delivery of the unborn child. In this stanza we voice our prayer that the Lord would teach us His way, that He would “shine thro’ the cloud and rain, thro’ sorrow, toil, and pain” so as to “make Thou my pathway plain.”
When doubts and fears arise, teach me Thy way!
When storms o’erspread the skies, teach me Thy way!
Shine thro’ the cloud and rain, thro’ sorrow, toil, and pain;
make Thou my pathway plain; teach me Thy way!
In stanza 4, we look ahead to the very end, as “long as life shall last,” knowing that this life on earth will end in death, and after that comes the judgment (Hebrews 9:27) . Surely we need to know now how to order our days to be ready for that moment. And none can teach us how to prepare for that moment and the days preceding it, but the Lord, who both gives and takes away life (Job 1:21). We cannot know in advance the details of our journey except in possibilities and broad outlines, so “where’er my lot be cast,” I need the Lord to teach me His way. We each want to be able to run the race with patience, following the author and finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus (Hebrews 12:1-2). That imagery of a race reminds us that we need strength, we need to keep the finish line in view, and we need to run so as to receive the prize (1 Corinthians 9:24-25). As He teaches us and enables us to follow Him, the glorious end result will be the crown of life (Revelation 2:10).
Long as my life shall last, teach me Thy way!
Where’er my lot be cast, teach me Thy way!
Until the race is run, until the journey’s done,
Until the crown is won, teach me Thy way!
We don’t know why Ramsey chose the name CAMACHA for the tune he composed to go along with these lyrics. Camacho is the Portuguese name of a parish in the municipality of Madeira, an area of abundant vegetation. It is a name borne by over 100,000 people today. But in further searching the internet for a meaning of the word camacha, one finds it rendered as a graceful and great companion. If that is what Ramsey had in mind, it certainly fits as a name for the one who is our great divine teacher.
Here are the four stanzas sung with beautiful natural scenery in the background, suggestive of following God’s way through the course of our lives.