Lai Lodo Oluwa

Words: James Montgomery, 1835.
Music: English melody

"Lai lodo Oluwa!" Amin, beni k'o ri, Iye wa ninu oro na, Aiku ni titi lai, Nihin ninu ara, Mo sako jinna si; Sibe alale ni mo nfi, Ojo kan sunmole! Ile Baba loke, Ile okan mi ni; Emi nfi oju igbagbo Wo bode wura re! Okan mi nfa pupo, S' ile na ti mo fe, Ile didan t' awon mimo Jerusalem t' orun. Awosanma dide, Gbogbo ero mi pin; Bi adaba Noa, mo nfo Larin iji lile. Sugbon sanma kuro, Iji si rekoja, Ayo ati alafia Si gba okan mi kan. L' oro ati l' ale L' osan ati l' oru, Mo ngbo orin orun, bori Rudurudu aiye, Oro ajinde ni, Hiho isegun ni, Lekan si, "Lai lod' Oluwa." Amin, beni ko ri. Source: Yoruba Baptist Hymnal #538

“Forever with the Lord!” Amen, so let it be! Life from His death is in that word ’Tis immortality. Here in the body pent, Absent from Him I roam, Yet nightly pitch my moving tent A day’s march nearer home My Father’s house on high, Home of my soul, how near At times to faith’s foreseeing eye Thy golden gates appear! Ah! then my spirit faints To reach the land I love, The bright inheritance of saints, Jerusalem above. I hear at morn and even, At noon and midnight hour, The choral harmonies of Heaven Earth’s Babel tongues o’erpower; Then, then I feel that He, Remembered or forgot, The Lord, is never far from me, Though I perceive Him not. “Forever with the Lord!” Forever in His will, The promise of that faithful word, Lord, here in me fulfill. With You at my right hand, Then I shall never fail; Uphold me, Lord, and I shall stand, Through grace I will prevail. So when my latest breath Breaks through the veil of pain, By death I shall escape from death, And life eternal gain. That resurrection word, That shout of victory: Once more, “Forever with the Lord!” Amen, so let it be! Source here.

James Montgomery, the writer of the wonderful piece of poetry, later to become the very well-known hymn – For ever with the Lord – had a most interesting life. Apart from anything else he was someone with a tender social conscience, and someone who was not afraid to challenge authority. Perhaps, in the future we may do a biographical article about him. Although he wrote quite a number of poems about topical issues of the day, including things like slavery, it is perhaps for his so-called Christian verse that he is better known. This particular offering from Montgomery’s pen appears in ‘A Poet’s Portfolio – or Minor Poems’, published in 1835, and again in 1853 in a work entitled ‘Original Hymns for Public, Private, and Social Devotions’, a publication that was re-issued in an edited edition in 1907.

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