Though I Speak

Representative Text

1. Though I speak in every language,
Prophesy for God above,
Though I understand all mysteries,
I am nothing without love.
Though through faith I can move mountains,
Give the poor all that I gain,
Though I’m burned alive for Jesus,
Without love, my life is vain.

2. Love is patient, kind, and selfless,
Envies not, nor boasts in pride,
Is not rude or quickly angered,
Never holds a grudge inside.
Love does not delight in evil,
But with truth rejoices e’er;
Trusts, protects, and hopes forever,
Perseveres and always cares.

3. One day prophecies will finish;
Tongues will in that day be stilled;
Knowledge, too, will pass forever,
When God’s Word is all fulfilled.
Now we only know a fraction,
And as children think and speak;
When perfection comes upon us,
Childish ways no more we’ll seek.

4. Now we see as in a mirror,
In a blurred and hazy way.
But reflections soon will vanish;
Face to face we’ll see some day.
In that day we’ll all know fully,
As we’re known by God above;
Till then, faith, hope, love still linger,
But the greatest far is love.

Author: Susan H. Peterson

Born: Oc­to­ber 17, 1950, Port An­ge­les, Wash­ing­ton. Died: Ju­ly 23, 2004, Per­al­ta, New Mex­i­co. Susan was the se­cond of two girls in the fam­i­ly. Her fa­ther worked for the Na­tion­al Park Ser­vice, so Su­san en­joyed grow­ing up in Na­tion­al Parks and His­tor­ic Sites across Amer­i­ca. She did her un­der­grad­u­ate work at Stan­ford Un­i­ver­si­ty and earned a BS in ma­the­ma­tics in 1972. The next year she took a one-year grad­u­ate pro­gram at Mult­no­mah School of the Bi­ble in Port­land, Or­e­gon, and re­ceived a Cer­tif­i­cate of Bi­ble up­on com­ple­tion. She de­cid­ed not to pur­sue a ca­reer in com­put­er sci­ence, as she had orig­in­al­ly inÂ… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Though I speak in every language
Title: Though I Speak
Author: Susan H. Peterson (1998)
Meter: 8.7.8.7 D
Language: English
Copyright: Released to the public domain

Tune

CONVERSE (Converse)

CONVERSE (also "Erie", named for the city in Pennsylvania where the composer lived for many years) was written in 1868 and published two years later in his Silver Wings under the pseudonym Karl Reden. The tune has also been called "Friendship." –Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship

Go to tune page >


Media

The Cyber Hymnal #6770
  • Adobe Acrobat image (PDF)
  • Noteworthy Composer score (NWC)
  • XML score (XML)

Instances

Instances (1 - 1 of 1)
TextScoreAudio

The Cyber Hymnal #6770

Suggestions or corrections? Contact us