I Love the Lord, the Fount of Life

I love the Lord, the fount of life and grace

Versifier: William Kuipers (1931)
Tune: GENEVAN 116
Published in 4 hymnals

Representative Text

1 I love the Lord, the fount of life and grace;
he hears my voice, my cry and supplication,
inclines his ear, gives strength and consolation;
in life, in death, my heart will seek his face.

2 The cords of death held me in deep despair;
the pangs of hell, like waves by tempest driven,
rolled o'er my soul; by grief and sorrow driven,
I turned in my distress to God in prayer.

3 I cried, "Deliver thou my soul, O Lord!"
Jehovah heard; I pledge him my devotion.
The Lord is just, his grace, wide as the ocean;
in boundless mercy he fulfills his word.

4 The Lord preserves the meek most tenderly;
brought nigh to death, in him I found salvation.
Come, thou my soul, relieved from agitation,
turn to thy rest; the Lord has favored thee.

5 Thou, O Jehovah, in thy sovereign grace,
hast saved my soul from death and woe appalling,
dried all my tears, secured my feet from falling.
Lo, I shall live and walk before thy face.

6 I have believed, and therefore did I speak
when I was made to suffer tribulation;
I said in haste and bitter desperation:
"All men are false, 'tis nought but lies they speak."

7 What shall I render to Jehovah now
for all the riches of his consolation?
With joy I'll take the cup of his salvation,
and call upon his name with thankful vow.

8 Before his saints I'll pay my vows to God;
e'en in death's vale he keepeth me from evil;
how dear to God the dying of his people!
Praise him, ye saints, and sound his name abroad.

9 I am, O Lord, thy servant, bound yet free,
thy handmaid's son, whose shackles thou hast broken;
redeemed by grace, I'll render as a token
of gratitude my constant praise to thee.

10 Jerusalem! Within thy courts I'll praise
Jehovah's name, and with a spirit lowly
pay all my vows. O Zion, fair and holy,
come join with me and bless him all thy days!


Source: Trinity Psalter Hymnal #116B

Versifier: William Kuipers

Born: 1883, Rochester, New York. Died: 1933, Passaic, New Jersey. Buried: Restlawn Cemetery, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Kuipers emigrated from Friesland to America, in the late 1880s, graduated from Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was ordained in the Christian Reformed Church. He served at the Second Christian Reformed Church of Fremont, Michigan (1914-19); Christian Reformed churches in Oakland, Michigan (1919-23); Dennis Avenue, Grand Rapids, Michigan (1923-27); and Summer Street, Passaic, New Jersey (1927-33). He wrote a number of poems, hymns, and psalm versifications. © The Cyber Hymnal™ (hymntime.com/tch)  Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: I love the Lord, the fount of life and grace
Title: I Love the Lord, the Fount of Life
Versifier: William Kuipers (1931)
Meter: 10.11.11.10
Language: English
Copyright: Copyright Publication Committee of the Christian Reformed Church

Tune

GENEVAN 116

GENEVAN 116 was first published in the 1562 edition of the Genevan Psalter, in which it was also the setting for Psalm 74. Seymour Swets (b. South Holland, IL, 1900; d. Grand Rapids, MI, 1982) harmonized the tune in 1954. This Mixolydian tune is one of the simplest, finest, and most loved of the Gen…

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Timeline

Instances

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Text

Trinity Psalter Hymnal #116B

Include 3 pre-1979 instances
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