Father of all, my soul defend

Representative Text

1 Father of all! my soul defend:
On thee my steadfast hopes depend.
Thee let me bless, the faithful guide,
Whose counsels o'er my life preside.

2 Though to the grave I must descend,
(For thus has heav'n's high will ordain'd)
Yet hope e'en there, my constant guest,
Shall smooth the pillow of my rest.

3 Though death awhile reign o'er my frame,
Thou from the grave my life wilt claim;
And, to my eyes, in full survey,
The op'ning paths of life display:

4 Those paths that to thy presence bear;
For plentitude of bliss is there;
And pleasure's streams, unmix'd with woe,
At thy right hand for ever flow.

Source: A Collection of Hymns and A Liturgy: for the use of Evangelical Lutheran Churches; to which are added prayers for families and individuals #496

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First Line:	Father of all, my soul defend
Copyright:	Public Domain

Psalm 16:7-11
(hymns)

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Notes

Father of all, my soul defend. J. Merrick. [Psalms xvi.] First published in his Psalms Translated and Paraphrased in English Verse, 1765, p. 27, and again in W. D. Tattersall's rearranged edition of the same, 1797. In the 8th edition of his Selection 1819, No. 16, Cotterill gave a cento from this version (stanzas i., viii.-xi.) beginning, "God of our life, our souls defend." This was repeated in later collections. In The Calcutta Hymn Book, 1862, No. 16, this cento is repeated with the omission of stanza ii., and the alteration of the opening line to "God of my life, my soul defend." Another cento is given in Psalms & Hymns Selected for Public Worship, &c, Bedford, 1859-64. It is composed of Cotterill’s first stanza as above, and three stanzas from I. Watts's version of Psalms xvii., in his Psalms of David, &c, 1719, "Lord, I am Thine; but Thou wilt prove."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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