{"id":278,"date":"2026-03-10T20:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T20:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/?p=278"},"modified":"2026-03-10T20:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T20:39:09","slug":"gods-presence-and-our-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/2026\/03\/10\/gods-presence-and-our-response\/","title":{"rendered":"God&#8217;s presence and our response"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Common Ground Song 61 \u2018I will walk in the presence of God\u2019<br><\/strong>Words \/ Music: Noel Donnelly \u00a9 Noel Donnelly.<br>YouTube recording: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MfqB-GmTbHs\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MfqB-GmTbHs<\/a><br>Featured image: Stained glass window, St John&#8217;s church, St Leonards<br>\u00a9 Julian P Guffogg cc-by-sa\/2.0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The song is a setting of verses from Psalm 116. Because of that, there are several songs with the same or similar titles. The video linked above is the only recording I found of this particular one, so I have included it, even though it is a poor quality amateur recording, and sung rather slower than I think this confident assertion of faith should go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The refrain (I will walk in the presence of God) sets the theme, and is repeated as the last line of each verse, as well as before the first verse and between each verse, as a kind of antiphon. Indeed, it could be sung effectively this way, with the congregation just learning this simple phrase and a cantor singing the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The overall message is that whatever problems we face in life (the words here include physical illness, bondage of whatever kind, and fear of death), we can know that God is present and will support us. In return, we offer up thanks, sacrifice (these days probably of money rather than sheep), and promises of serving him that we fully intend to keep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This simple formula (God is with us in difficulties, we thank him for his presence and promise to serve him) has lasted from the earliest times of the Jewish religion. It still serves us well today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Common Ground Song 61 \u2018I will walk in the presence of God\u2019Words \/ Music: Noel Donnelly \u00a9 Noel Donnelly.YouTube recording: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MfqB-GmTbHsFeatured image: Stained glass window, St John&#8217;s church, St Leonards\u00a9 Julian P Guffogg cc-by-sa\/2.0 The song is a setting of verses from Psalm 116. Because of that, there are several songs with the same or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[31,91,9],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-common-ground","tag-faith","tag-psalms","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pilgrims.org.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}