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The Lyrics:  I Need Thee Every Hour


I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford.
Refrain
I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.
I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby;
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.
Refrain
I need Thee every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly and abide, or life is in vain.
Refrain
I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promises in me fulfill.
Refrain
I need Thee every hour, most Holy One;
O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessèd 

Hymn History:  I Need Thee Every Hour.   

​One day as a young wife and mo­ther of 37 years of age, I was bu­sy with m y reg­u­lar house­hold tasks. Sud­den­ly, I be­came so filled with the sense of near­ness to the Mast­er that, won­der­ing how one could live with­out Him, ei­ther in joy or pain, these words, “I Need Thee Ev­e­ry Hour,” were ush­ered in­to my mind, the thought at once tak­ing full pos­sess­ion of me.

After writ­ing the lyr­ics, Hawks gave them to her

pas­tor, Ro­bert Low­ry, who add­ed the tune and

re­frain.   The  hymn  was  first  pub­lished at the

Na­tion­al  Bap­tist  Sun­day  School  Con­ven­tion

in Cin­cin­na­ti, Ohio, in No­vem­ber 1872.  Some

years  lat­er,  af­ter  the  death  of  her  hus­band,

Hawks wrote:  I  did  not  un­der­stand  at  first

why this hymn had touched the great throb­bing heart of hu­man­i­ty. It was not un­til long af­ter, when the sha­dow fell over my way, the shadow of a great loss, that I un­der­stood some­thing of the comforting pow­er in the words which I had been per­mit­ted to give out to others in my hour of sweet se­ren­i­ty and peace.