Hymn History-My Faith Looks Up to Thee

  • May 1, 2011
  • 6039
                        
Hymn History My Faith Looks Up to Thee My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine! Now hear me while I pray, take all my guilt away, O let me from this day be wholly Thine! May Thy rich grace impart Strength to my fainting heart, my zeal inspire! As Thou hast died for me, O may my love to Thee, Pure warm, and changeless be, a living fire! While life’s dark maze I tread, And griefs around me spread, be Thou my Guide; Bid darkness turn to day, wipe sorrow’s tears away, Nor let me ever stray from Thee aside. When ends life’s transient dream, When death’s cold sullen stream over me roll; Blest Savior, then in love, fear and distrust remove; O bear me safe above, a ransomed soul! Ray Palmer (1808-1887) Roy Palmer wrote this hymn when he was just twenty-two-years-old. He was teaching at a girl’s school in New York City and was going through a rough year dealing with depression and illness. He apparently came across a German poem about a sinner kneeling at the cross, which he translated and added four stanzas to the poem to create this hymn. He ran into a friend a couple years later that was a major publisher in the hymnal business. That friend was Lowell Mason, a music icon at the time. Palmer showed his friend the poem he had written and Mason read over it. After reading the words, Mason said to his friend, “You may live many years and do many good things, but I think you will be best known to posterity as the author of ‘My Faith Looks Up to Thee’. Mason’s prediction came true as Palmer is known for this hymn even today.


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