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