Leah’s Song set to a traditional Welsh melody, The Ashgrove

The despairing words of this well-known song tell of a lover wandering in an ash grove, mourning the loss of the love of his life who has been taken from him too soon. I have given this beautiful folk tune a new focus, however, by taking for its subject the potentially tragic biblical figure of Jacob’s first wife, Leah.

Subtly substituted for her more flamboyant sister into Jacob’s tent on his wedding night, on the pretence that local custom required the eldest daughter to be married first, Leah would forever live with the shadow of knowing that her husband infinitely preferred Rachel. She could so easily have wasted away under their withering disregard, especially as it was increasingly aggravated by Rachel’s sharp thorns and darts of envy toward her fertile sister.

As one who must have suffered much in terms of feeling unwanted and rejected, Leah represents many who feel disregarded and mistreated. To her credit, she learned to praise God, even in her sorrow. The names she chose for her children reflect something of her journey: she knew that the Lord had seen that she was unloved and that He had opened her womb in response. (Gen. 29:31) She named her firstborn Reuben, which sounds like the Hebrew for ‘He has seen my misery.’ Her second was Simeon, for God is ‘one who hears,’ and her third Levi: ‘God will join,’ so named in the hope that God would finally cause her husband to love her.

But her fourth son drew forth a new song from her – Judah: “This time, I will praise the Lord.” (Gen. 29:25) Well done, Leah! Your children were indeed amongst those who would become the founding fathers of Israel – and it was from Judah’s own line, of course, that would come not only King David, that great composer of psalms, but the Saviour of the whole world.

You may not have been blessed with strong eyes, but you learned where to direct your heart in praise, and in time you became the mother of a nation – and an inspiration for each one of us to praise the Lord when we find ourselves in strange and uncharted territory.

The second verse of our re-rendering of this song gives voice to our praise, adapting the words of the prolific American composer, Katherine Davis, who used the melody to set one of her own hymns. Let us indeed raise our song of thanksgiving!

To Leah was given a husband unbidden
In the darkness he mistook her for the love of his life
He had waited for Rachel and longed to be her husband
But then in the morning came the shock of his life
This shame, would it now consume her, not being beloved by Jacob
He setting his heart on Rachel to be first and not her?
In praise Leah found refuge, not heeding her sadness,
For God saw her mis'ry and blessed her estate.

Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving
To God the creator triumphantly raise;
You fashioned and made us, protect and direct us,
and guide us like Leah, to the end of our days.
Your banner is o'er us, Your power goes before us,
A pillar of fire shining forth in the night.
Till shadows have vanished and darkness is banished
Your purposes prosper as we pour forth our praise.

Words of the first verse by Robert Weston
Keys and vocals - Sally Mowbray
Guitar - David Booth