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Believers Hymn Book · No. 96 · Words: Robert Murray McCheyne · Tune: Consolation
I once was a stranger to grace and to God;
Create PowerPoint slides from this hymn →Written by Scottish minister Robert Murray McCheyne in 1837, this hymn traces the author's personal journey from spiritual ignorance to saving faith, centered on the Hebrew name 'Jehovah Tsidkenu' (The LORD Our Righteousness) drawn from Jeremiah 23:6.
Verse 1
I once was a stranger to grace and to God;
I knew not my danger, I felt not my load;
Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,
JEHOVAH TSIDKENU was nothing to me.
Verse 2
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 3
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 4
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.
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