Scripture Verse

Let my mouth be filled with Thy praise and with Thy honor all the day. Psalm 71:8

Introduction

portrait
Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)

Words: Ho­ra­ti­us Bo­nar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, third ser­ies, 1866.

Music: El­la­combe, Ge­sang­buch der herz­ogl. Wir­tem­berg­isch­en ka­tho­lisch­en Hof­ka­pel­le (Würt­tem­berg, Ger­ma­ny: 1784). Adapt­ed and har­mo­nized by Will­iam H. Monk in the 1868 ap­pendix to Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, num­ber 366 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

portrait
William Monk (1823–1889)

Lyrics

Fill Thou my life, O Lord my God,
In ev­ery part with praise,
That my whole be­ing may pro­claim
Thy be­ing and Thy ways.
Not for the lip of praise alone,
Nor e’en the prais­ing heart
I ask, but for a life made up
Of praise in ev­ery part!

Praise in the com­mon words I speak,
Life’s com­mon looks and tones,
In fel­low­ship in hearth and board
With my be­lov­èd ones;
Not in the tem­ple crowd alone
Where ho­ly voic­es chime,
But in the si­lent paths of earth,
The qui­et rooms of time.

Fill ev­ery part of me with praise;
Let all my be­ing speak
Of Thee and of Thy love, O Lord,
Poor though I be, and weak.
So shalt Thou, Lord, from me, e’en me,
Receive the glo­ry due;
And so shall I be­gin on earth
The song for­ev­er new.

So shall each fear, each fret, each care
Be turned in­to a song,
And ev­ery wind­ing of the way
The echo shall pro­long;
So shall no part of day or night
From sac­red­ness be free;
But all my life, in ev­ery step
Be fel­low­ship with Thee.