Favourite Hymns: I Once was a Stranger to Grace and to God

This is a marvelous piece. We sang it this morning at the Lord's Table in Millisle Baptist. M'Cheyne has gifted the church a tremendous legacy in so many ways, and this piece, penned by him, gives words to our experience of the Gospel in such a profound way. [Jehovah Tsidkenu means 'the Lord our rightousness' by the way].

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.