I once was a stranger to grace and to God;
I knew not my danger, and felt not my load;
When friends spoke in raptures of Christ on the tree,
Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me
I oft read with pleasure, to soothe or engage,
Isaiah’s wild measure, or John’s simple page;
But e’en when they pictured the blood-sprinkled tree,
Jehovah Tsidkenu seemed 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 with 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.
Jehovah Tsidkenu! my treasure and boast;
Jehovah Tsidkenu! I ne’er can be lost;
In Thee I shall conquer by flood and by field, —
My Cable, my Anchor, My Breastplate, and Shield.
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.
- The phrase, Jehovah Tsidkenu, is a Hebrew phrase, and means the Lord our Righteousness. See Jer. 23: 6.