Why Should I Complain

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When my Savior, my Shepherd is near

Author: John Newton
Published in 26 hymnals

Representative Text

1 When my Savior, my Shepherd is near,
How quickly my sorrows depart!
New beauties around me appear,
New spirits enliven my heart;
His presence gives peace to my soul,
And Satan assaults me in vain;
While my Shepherd his power controls
I think I no more shall complain.

2 But alas! what a change do I find,
When my Shepherd withdraws from my sight?
My fears all return to my mind,
My day is soon changed into night.
Then Satan his efforts renews,
To vex and ensnare me again;
All my pleasing enjoyments I lose,
And can only lament and complain.

3 By these changes I often pass through
I am taught my own weakness to know;
I am taught what my Shepherd can do,
And how much to his mercy I owe:
It is he that supports me through all,
When I faint, he revives me again;
He attends to my prayer when I call,
And bids me no longer complain.

4 Wherefore then should I murmur and grieve,
Since my Shepherd is always the same,
And has promised he never will leave
The soul that confides in his name;
To relieve me from all that I fear,
He was buffeted, tempted, and slain;
And at length he will surely appear,
Tho' he leaves me a while to complain.

5 While I dwell in an enemy's land,
Can I hope to be always in peace?
'Tis enough that my Shepherd's at hand,
And that shortly this warfare will cease;
For ere long he will bid me remove
From this region of sorrow and pain,
To abide in his presence above,
And then I no more shall complain.

Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the use of Christians, 1803

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Author: John Newton

John Newton (b. London, England, 1725; d. London, 1807) was born into a Christian home, but his godly mother died when he was seven, and he joined his father at sea when he was eleven. His licentious and tumultuous sailing life included a flogging for attempted desertion from the Royal Navy and captivity by a slave trader in West Africa. After his escape he himself became the captain of a slave ship. Several factors contributed to Newton's conversion: a near-drowning in 1748, the piety of his friend Mary Catlett, (whom he married in 1750), and his reading of Thomas à Kempis' Imitation of Christ. In 1754 he gave up the slave trade and, in association with William Wilberforce, eventually became an ardent abolitionist. After becoming a tide… Go to person page >

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