Sister Sheri Peterson
Ward Music Director
For this hymn I have a personal story. After performing Jesus,Savior, Pilot Me at a fireside one evening, a gentleman came up to me and told me he was a veteran of the United States Navy, he had served on a battleship and this hymn carried special meaning for him. He asked if I knew that all naval ships had a pilot and if I was familiar with what they did. I replied that I was not familiar, and had always wondered at the water and ocean metaphors in a hymn asking the Savior to be one's pilot..... I had wondered why aviation metaphors had not been used. This sailor smiled and asked if I'd like to know more and of course my answer was yes.
He told me that a pilot on a Navy ship (also known as a maritime pilot or marine pilot) is a navigational expert who possesses both detailed maps and special knowledge of what lies beneath the surface of a particular body of water and of dangerous passages. He said the captain of a ship relies heavily on the pilot to navigate a ship safely through dangerous waters, narrow passages, harbors, river mouths and congested waterways. The pilot is the one with the most specific knowledge of the hazards of a particular waterway - the rocks, the currents, the depths - and is also an expert handler of ships of all types and sizes. Without the pilot, many ships would be lost.
I very much appreciated his warm kindness in sharing this with me as it deepened my love for and understanding of this hymn.
Upon further study I found that this hymn was originally written for a congregation of sailors in 1871 by Edward Hopper while he was a pastor of the Mariner's Church at New York Harbor, known as "The Church of the Sea and Land."
Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me contains no complicated theology. People young and old, of every level of education and experience, can respond to one simple idea - that a higher power knows the hidden dangers that threaten us and will guide us safely past them to the "peaceful rest".