I ONCE WAS A STRANGER

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.




E‟en treading the valley,

the shadow of death,

this watchword shall rally

my faltering breath;

for when from life‟s fever

my God sets me free,

Jehovah Tsidkenu

my deathsong shall be