Praise to God for His Goodness and Truth

Top Media Text Author Text Info Notes Tune Timeline Arrangements Page Scans Instances

I'll praise my Maker with my breath

Author: Isaac Watts
Published in 515 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI, Recording

Piano/Organ
	Autumn Praise (Colorful Hymns of Praise…

Representative Text

1 I'll praise my Maker with my 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 Why should I make a man my trust?
Princes must die and turn to dust;
Vain is the help of flesh and blood:
Their breath departs, their pomp and power,
And thoughts all vanish in an hour,
Nor can they make their promise good.

3 Happy the man whose hopes rely
On Israel's God; He made the sky
And earth and seas, with all their train;
His truth for ever stands secure;
He saves th' oppress'd, He feeds the poor,
And none shall find His promise vain.

4 The Lord hath eyes to give the blind;
The Lord supports the sinking mind;
He sends the labouring conscience peace,
He helps the stranger in distress,
The widow and the fatherless,
And grants the prisoner sweet release.

5 He loves his saints, He knows them well,
But turns the wicked down to hell;
Thy God, O Zion, ever reigns;
Let every tongue, let every age,
In this exalted work engage;
Praise Him in everlasting strains.

6 I'll praise Him while He lends me 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.

Source: Spurgeon's Own Hymn Book #146b

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts was the son of a schoolmaster, and was born in Southampton, July 17, 1674. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin, in his fourth year, and writing respectable verses at the age of seven. At the age of sixteen, he went to London to study in the Academy of the Rev. Thomas Rowe, an Independent minister. In 1698, he became assistant minister of the Independent Church, Berry St., London. In 1702, he became pastor. In 1712, he accepted an invitation to visit Sir Thomas Abney, at his residence of Abney Park, and at Sir Thomas' pressing request, made it his home for the remainder of his life. It was a residence most favourable for his health, and for the prosecution of his literary… Go to person page >

^ top

Related Texts

First Line:	I'll praise my Maker with my breath
Title:	Praise to God for His Goodness and Truth
Author:	Isaac Watts
Meter:	8.8.8.8.8.8
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

English

10 shown out of 289

Korean

찬송과 예배 = Chansong gwa yebae = Come, Let Us Worship: the Korean-English Presbyterian hymnal and service book #123

^ top

Notes

I'll praise my Maker with my [while I've] breath. I. Watts. [Ps. cxlvi.] First published in his Psalms of David, &c., 1719, in 6 stanzas of 6 lines, and headed, “Praise to God for His Goodness and Truth." It is sometimes given in this form: but the more popular arrangement, which is in extensive use in all English-speaking countries, is that by J. Wesley, beginning, "I'll praise my Maker while I've breath." This is composed of stanzas i., iii., iv. and vi. somewhat altered. It appeared in Wesley's Psalms & Hymns, Charlestown, South Carolina, 1736-7; was repeated in the Wesley Psalms & Hymns, 1743, and in the Festival Hymnal, 1780. Another arrangement is, "Happy the man whose hopes rely." This is composed of stanzas iii., iv., and vi. somewhat altered, and was given in Cotterill’s Selection, 1810. Neither the original nor the arrangements by Wesley and by Cotterill have the doxology which is found in some collections.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

^ top

Tune

OLD 113TH

GENEVAN 68 is usually attributed to Matthäus Greiter (b. Aichach, Bavaria, 1490; d. Strasbourg, France, 1550). It was published as a setting for Psalm 119 in Das dritt theil Strassburger Kirchenampt (1525), which Greiter and his friend Wolfgang Dachstein edited. Greiter studied at Freiburg Universi…

Go to tune page >

NASHVILLE (Mason)

MONMOUTH

All tunes published with 'Praise to God for His Goodness and Truth'^ top