Glory to God ‎#806

806. I'll Praise My Maker (Psalm 146)

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 How happy they whose hopes rely
on Israel's God, who made the sky
and earth and seas with all their train;
whose truth forever stands secure,
who saves the oppressed and feeds the poor,
and none shall find God's promise vain.

3 The Lord pours eyesight on the blind;
the Lord supports the fainting mind
and sends the laboring conscience peace.
God helps the stranger in distress,
the widowed and the parentless,
and grants the prisoner sweet release.

4 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.

Text Information

• First Line: I'll praise my Maker while I've breath
• Title: I'll Praise My Maker (Psalm 146)
• Author: Isaac Watts (1719)
• Adapter: John Wesley (1736, alt.)
• Meter: 8.8.8.8.8.8
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 2013
• Scripture:
  Psalm 146
  ;
  1 Kings 17:17-24
  ;
  2 Kings 4:42-44
  ;
  Psalm 68:5-6
  ;
  Psalm 72:12-14
  ;
  Psalm 84:12
  ;
  Psalm 104:33
  ;
  Psalm 124:8
  ;
  Psalm 130:5-8
  ;
  Psalm 136:10-24
  ;
  Psalm 145:14
  ;
  Psalm 147:10-11
  ;
  Psalm 149:2
  ;
  Proverbs 16:20
  ;
  Isaiah 29:19
  ;
  Isaiah 40:21-31
  ;
  Isaiah 61:1-4
  ;
  Matthew 20:29-34
  ;
  Mark 8:22-26
  ;
  Luke 4:18-19
  ;
  Luke 7:18-23
  ;
  Luke 18:35-43
  ;
  John 9:1-12
• Topic: Creation; Healing; Living and Dying in Christ; Praise; Providence; Social Concerns; Trusting in the Promises of God

Tune Information

• Name: OLD 113TH
• Composer (attributed to): Matthäus Greiter (1525)
• Harmonizer: V. Earle Copes (1963)
• Meter: 8.8.8.8.8.8
• Key: D Major
• Copyright: Harm. © 1964 Abingdon Press (admin. The Copyright Company)

Text Information:

This paraphrase of Psalm 146 was a great favorite of John Wesley: it appeared in his first hymn collection in 1737 (published in Charleston, South Carolina) and was on his lips when he died. The 16th-century tune to which it is set here is the one Watts had in mind for it.