Bind Your Word

Moses said to the people:

“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!

Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God,

with all your heart,

and with all your soul,

and with all your strength.

Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.

Drill them into your children.

Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest.

Bind them at your wrist as a sign

and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.

Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.”

Deuteronomy 6:4-13

To the tune ST. ANNE (“O God, Our Help In Ages Past”):

Hear me, my Lord and God alone,
for I have heard your word
and seek to take it as my own,
to live what I have heard:

So bind your word upon my brow
and set it in my mind.
My thoughts will echo with its sound,
my searching steps to guide.

Then bind your word upon my lips,
upon my tripping tongue,
to flow with every breath and hiss
'til all your songs are sung.

And bind your word upon my heart,
a seal upon my arm,
to soften what I have made hard
and turn me from all harm.

Then bind your word upon my wrist
and let it fill my hands,
that I may give and not resist
the work that love demands.

That when I come into my home,
when your word brings me there,
I shall lift up your name in song
'til echoes fill the air!