My Faith Looks Up to Thee

Good news! Here is a hymn accepted for use in many denominations......"My Faith Looks Up to Thee". In our church service yesterday it was sung by the children's choir during the collection of the offering.

The words were penned in 1832 by Ray Palmer, a school-teacher who had recently graduated from Yale University, and had experienced a year of illness and loneliness. In his own words he relates, "The words for these stanzas were born out of my own soul with very little effort. I recall that I wrote the verses with tender emotion. There was not the slightest thought of writing for another eye, least of all writing a hymn for Christian worship. It is well-remembered that when writing the last line, 'Oh, bear me safe above, a ransomed soul!' the thought of the whole work of redemption and salvation was involved in those words, and suggested the theme of eternal praises, and this brought me to a degree of emotion that brought abundant tears."

The well-known tune to this hymn was written by Lowell Mason of Boston, Mass., whom the World Book Encyclopedia describes as "the first music teacher in American Public Schools". Lowell Mason was a friend of Ray Palmer and became famous as a composer and publisher of hymns.
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My Faith Looks Up to Thee

Verse 1:

My faith looks up to Thee,

Thou Lamb of Calvary,

Saviour divine!

Now hear me while I pray,

Take all my guilt away,

O let me from this day

Be wholly Thine!

Verse 2:

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!

Verse 3:

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.

Verse 4:

When ends life's transient dream,

When death's cold sullen stream

Shall o'er me roll;

Blest Saviour, then in love,

Fear and distrust remove;

O bear me safe above,

A ransomed soul!

AMEN!

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Our Lutheran hymnal alters the title and first line to "My Faith Looks Trustingly", and uses "redeemed and free" in the last line in place of "a ransomed soul".

Link to Cyberhymnal: www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/m/y/myfluptt.htm .