Verse 1

I once was a stranger to grace and to God,

I knew not my danger, and felt not my load;

Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,

Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me.

Verse 2

I oft read with pleasure, to sooth or engage,

Isaiah’s wild measure and John’s simple page;

But e’en when they pictured the blood sprinkled tree

Jehovah Tsidkenu seemed nothing to me.

Verse 3

Like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll,

I wept when the waters went over His soul;

Yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree

Jehovah Tsidkenu—’twas nothing to me.

Verse 4

When free grace awoke me, by light from on high,

Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;

No refuge, no safety in self could I see

Jehovah Tsidkenu my Saviour must be.

Verse 5

My terrors all vanished before the sweet name;

My guilty fears banished, with boldness I came

To drink at the fountain, life giving and free

Jehovah Tsidkenu is all things to me.

Verse 6

Jehovah Tsidkenu! my treasure and boast,

Jehovah Tsidkenu! I ne’er can be lost;

In thee I shall conquer by flood and by field,

My cable, my anchor, my breast-plate and shield!

Verse 7

Even treading the valley, the shadow of death,

This watchword shall rally my faltering breath;

For while from life’s fever my God sets me free,

Jehovah Tsidkenu, my death song shall be.

Words by Robert Murray M'Cheyne 1813-1843 Music by Sol Fenne

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