The hymn “God Be With You Til’ We Meet Again” was written by Rev Jeremiah Rankin in 1880, pastor of Washington DC’s First Congregational Church and President of Howard University. He wrote it after discovering that the term “good-bye” meant “God be with you.”
On September 19th, 1945, Darlene Deibler was liberated from a Japanese prison camp – just a few days after Japan signed their surrender aboard the USS Missouri. Eight years before, she and her new husband had landed in New Guinea along with a mentor, Dr Robert Jaffray as missionaries. Now, both her husband and her mentor were dead and Darlene, a 28-year-old widow, was returning home without a single thing to her name.
In prison, she had suffered in indescribable ways, both mentally and physically. She had suffered from exhaustion, starvation, malaria, beriberi, and dysentery. She had witnessed death on a horrible scale. During this time, not one letter or package had reached her. She wrote that as she departed, she prayed a bitter prayer, “Lord, I’ll never come to these islands again. They’ve robbed me of everything that was most dear to me.”
Suddenly, she heard voices being raised in the distance. On the shore were a large number of believers, most of whom had come to know Jesus through their mission. They were singing, “God be with you til’ we meet again. By His counsels guide, uphold you. With His sheep securely fold you. God be with you til’ we meet again.”
In her autobiography Evidence Not Seen she wrote, “This song released the waters of bitterness that had flooded my soul, and the hurt began to drain from me as my tears flowed in a steady stream. The healing had begun. I knew then that some day, God only knew when, I would come back to these people and my island home.”
God be with you til’ we meet again; By His counsels guide,
uphold you.
With His sheep securely fold you; God be with you til’ we
meet again.
Til’ we meet, til’ we meet, Til’ we meet at Jesus feet,
Til’ we meet, til’ we meet. God be with you til’ we meet again.
God be with you til’ we meet again; ‘Neath His wings
protecting hide you.
Daily manna still provide you; God be with you til’ we
meet again.
God be with you til’ we meet again; Keep love’s banner
floating o’er you.
Smite death’s threatening wave before you; God be with
you til’ we meet again.
God be with you til’ we meet again; When life’s perils
thick confound you.
Put His arms unfailing ‘round you; God be with you til’
we meet again.
Morgan, Robert J., Then Sings My Soul, Thomas Nelson
Publishers, 2003.
