Give thanks to God, He reigns above,
Kind are His thoughts, His name is Love;
His mer­cy ag­es past have known,
And ag­es long to come shall own.
Let the re­deem­èd of the Lord
The won­ders of His grace re­cord;
Israel, the na­tion whom He chose,
And res­cued from their migh­ty foes.

When God’s al­migh­ty arm had broke
Their fet­ters and th’Egypt­ian yoke,
They traced the de­sert, wan­der­ing round
A wild and so­li­ta­ry ground.
There they could find no lead­ing road,
Nor ci­ty for a fixed abode;
Nor food, nor fount­ain to as­suage
Their burn­ing thirst or hun­ger’s rage.

In their dis­tress, to God they cried;
God was their Sav­ior and their guide;
He led their march far wan­der­ing round—
’Twas the right path to Ca­naan’s ground.
Thus when our first re­lease we gain
From sin’s old yoke, and Sa­tan’s chain,
We have this de­sert world to pass,
A dan­ger­ous and a tire­some place.

He feeds and clothes us all the way,
He guides our foot­steps lest we stray,
He guards us with a pow­er­ful hand,
And brings us to the heav’n­ly land.
O let the saints with joy re­cord
The truth and good­ness of the Lord!
How great His works! How kind His ways!
Let ev­ery tongue pro­nounce His praise.