This song by Bob Dufford has no right to be so popular. Marrying selections from the Beatitudes with passages from Isaiah is an interesting way to link Jesus with the God of the Old Testament I suppose, but the fiddly timings should have made it unsingable. Perhaps we sometimes need to hear the voice of God coming from our gathering telling us to stop being so anxious. In any case, I suspect the assemblies just smoothed the harsh edges off it and sang with less extreme stacatto and went with it. Sometimes they smooth things off so every note is regular 4/4 on the beat and I hope Bob Dufford never had to listen to it played like that. I think the notes as written are best left for a solo but hopefully most groups still sing it with some approximation of his spacings.
I note it is suggested as a funeral song but it turns up everywhere. Of course as it is sung in the voice of God it is now all wrong.
It can be purchased for download at OCP.
The original is here. This choir smooths things out a bit. I think the written speed is too slow – my backing takes it up a bit and I think it works.
Verse 1
You shall cross the barren desert, but you shall not die of thirst.
You shall wander far in safety though you do not know the way.
You shall speak your words in foreign lands and all will understand.
You shall see the face of God and live.Refrain
Be not afraid.
I go before you always.
Come follow me, and
I will give you rest.Verse 2
If you pass through raging waters in the sea, you shall not drown.
If you walk amid the burning flames, you shall not be harmed.
If you stand before the pow’r of hell and death is at your side, know that
I am with you through it all.Refrain
Verse 3
Blessed are your poor, for the kingdom shall be theirs.
Blest are you that weep and mourn, for one day you shall laugh. And if wicked men insult and hate you all because of me, blessed, blessed are you!Refrain
© Robert Dufford SJ and New Dawn Music 1975.