The Cyber Hymnal ‎#3025

3025. I Once was a Stranger

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.

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.

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.

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 Savior must be.

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.

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!

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.

Text Information

• First Line: I once was a stranger to grace and to God
• Title: I Once was a Stranger
• Author: Robert M. McCheyne (1837)
• Meter: 11.11.11.11
• Language: English
• Copyright: Public Domain
• Notes: 'Jehovah Tsidkenu' is Hebrew for 'The Lord Our Righteousness.' Alternate tune: MILSTER, John P. Camp­bell, 1899

Tune Information

• Name: GORDON
• Composer: Adoniram Judson Gordon (1876)
• Meter: 11.11.11.11
• Incipit: 13443 21327 71134
• Key: F Major
• Copyright: Public Domain