I'll praise my Maker while I've breath (StF 79)
- Authors & translators:
- Watts, Isaac
- Theme:
- Praise and Thanksgiving
- Tune:
- Monmouth
- Composers & arrangers:
- Davis, Gabriel
- Metre:
- 88.8.D.
- Theme:
- Justice and Peace
- Source:
- Singing the Faith: 79 (CD4 #4)
- Verses:
- 4
- STF Number:
- 79
1
I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath;
and when my voice is lost in death,
praise shall employ my nobler powers;
my days of praise shall ne’er be past,
while life and thought and being last,
or immortality endures.
2
Happy are they whose hopes rely
on Israel’s God! He made the sky,
and earth and sea, with all their train:
his truth for ever stands secure;
he saves the oppressed, he feeds the poor,
and none shall find his promise vain.
3
The Lord pours eyesight on the blind;
the Lord supports the fainting mind;
he sends the labouring conscience peace;
he helps the stranger in distress,
the widow and the fatherless,
and grants the prisoner sweet release.
4
I’ll praise him while he lends me breath;
and when my voice is lost in death,
praise shall employ my nobler powers:
my days of praise shall ne’er be past,
while life and thought and being last,
or immortality endures.
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)