Psalm 63 – O God, My God, My All Thou Art!

O God, my God, my all thou art!
Ere shines the dawn of rising day,

O God, my God, my all thou art!
Ere shines the dawn of rising day,
Thy sovereign light within my heart,
Thy all-enlivening power display.

For thee my thirsty soul doth pant,
While in this desert land I live;
And hungry as I am, and faint,
Thy love alone can comfort give.

In a dry land, behold, I place
My whole desire on thee, O Lord;
And more I joy to gain thy grace,
Than all earth’s treasures can afford.

More dear than life itself, thy love
My heart and tongue shall still employ;
And to declare thy praise will prove
My peace, my glory, and my joy.

In blessing thee with grateful songs
My happy life shall glide away;
The praise that to thy name belongs
Hourly with lifted hands I’ll pay.

Abundant sweetness, while I sing
Thy love, my ravished heart o’erflows;
Secure in thee, my God and King,
Of glory that no period knows.

Thy name, O God, upon my bed
Dwells on my lips, and fires my thought;
With trembling awe, in midnight shade,
I muse on all thy hands have wrought.

In all I do I feel thine aid;
Therefore thy greatness will I sing,
O God, who bidd’st my heart be glad
Beneath the shadow of thy wing!

My soul draws nigh and cleaves to thee:
Then let or earth or hell assail,
Thy mighty hand shall set me free;
For whom thou sav’st, he ne’er shall fail.

Psalm lxiii.

Translated by John Wesley