02.22. Jehovah Tsidkenu

JEHOVAH TSIDKENU ’THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’

(The watchword of the Refomers.) 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.

I oft read with pleasure, to sooth or engage, Isaiah’s wild measure and John’s simple page; But e’en when they pictured the blood-sprinkled tree Jehovah Tsidkenu seem’d 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 nail’d 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.

Jehovah Tsidkenu! my treasure and boast, Jehovah Tsidkenu! I ne’er can be lost; In thee I shall conquer by flood and by field, My cable, my anchor, my breast-plate and shield!

Even treading the valley, the shadow of death, This "watchword" shall rally my faltering breath; For while from life’s fever my God sets me free, Jehovah Tsidkenu, my death song shall be.

November 18, 1884.