I’ll Praise My Maker While I’ve Breath
I’ll Praise My Maker While I’ve Breath
I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath;
And when my voice is lost in death,
Praise shall employ my nobler pow’rs;
My days of praise shall ne’er be past,
While life, and thought, and being last,
Or immortality endures.
Happy the man whose hopes rely
On Israel’s God! He made the sky,
And earth, and sea, with all their train:
His truth for ever stands secure;
He saves the oppressed, He feeds the poor,
And none shall find His promise vain.
The Lord gives eyesight to the blind;
The Lord supports the fainting mind;
He sends the laboring conscience peace;
He helps the stranger in distress,
The widow and the fatherless
And grants the prisoner sweet release.
I’ll praise Him while He lends me breath;
And when my voice is lost in death,
Praise shall employ my nobler pow’rs;
My days of praise shall ne’er be past,
While life, and thought, and being last,
Or immortality endures.
IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY stands a statue of Isaac Watts with a pen in his hand. Not far from Watts, John Wesley is also honored. Today’s hymn has connections to both men.
As John Wesley lay dying, he surprised the friends gathered around his bedside by singing in a clear voice this hymn of Isaac Watts: “I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath, and when my voice is lost in death, praise shall employ my nobler powers.”
The next day he tried to sing the hymn again, but he could not. Two or three times he began, but could only say the words “I’ll praise.” With those words on his lips, he was ushered into glory.
The hymn is a paraphrase of Psalm 146. Many of Watts’ hymns are similarly based on psalms: “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” (January 29) is based on Psalm 90, “Jesus Shall Reign” (June 1) is from Psalm 72, and “Joy to the World” (December 25) is from Psalm 98.
Praise the Lord! Let all that I am praise the Lord. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath. . . . But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.
Psalm 146:1-2, 5
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