First Line: I once was a stranger to grace and to God ,

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.

2 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
nailed to the tree
Jehovah Tsidkenu — 'twas nothing to me.

3 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.

4 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 was all things to me.

5 E'en treading the valley, the shadow of death,
This watchword shall rally my faltering breath ;
For, when from life's fever my God sets me free,
Jehovah Tsidkenu my death-song shall be.