Songs of Praises
The title for this piece comes from the old church. It is a refrain of a hymn that begins with the words, "Guide me, oh Thou Great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land." Although, I've traveled some distance from the spiritual experiences I had as a youth in the old church, they were nevertheless poignant and contributive to my ongoing spiritual expansion. In the stories from the scriptures which form the basis of the belief system of the old church, Jehovah is defined as a punitive, disruptive being who is very jealous of his position as the only one to receive worship from his followers. Such a being would be frightening if he was the leader of any organization with no power greater than an ordinary human being in today's world. However, Jehovah was God with the power of life and death; he would destroy nations if they lived on land desired by his chosen people. He was capable of turning a woman into a salt sculpture for the small disobedience of looking bac