What a Friend We Have in Jesus
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Organ and orchestra: an introduction, then each of the 3 verses. Tap a verse’s number to start there.
- What a Friend we have in Jesus,All our sins and griefs to bear!What a privilege to carryEverything to God in prayer!O what peace we often forfeit,O what needless pain we bear,All because we do not carryEverything to God in prayer!
- Have we trials and temptations?Is there trouble anywhere?We should never be discouraged;Take it to the Lord in prayer.Can we find a friend so faithfulWho will all our sorrows share?Jesus knows our every weakness;Take it to the Lord in prayer.
- Are we weak and heavy laden,Cumbered with a load of care?Precious Savior, still our refuge—Take it to the Lord in prayer.Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?Take it to the Lord in prayer;In His arms He'll take and shield thee,Thou wilt find a solace there.
About this hymn
- Words
- Joseph M. Scriven, 1855. As printed in The Gospel Awakening (1888), no. 87.
- Tune
- CONVERSE, Charles C. Converse, 1868.
- Harmony
- The Presbyterian Book of Hymns and Tunes, 1874. Score from the Open Hymnal Project. Scriven’s three stanzas; the Open Hymnal adds a fourth by another hand.
- Recordings
- Arranged and recorded by Fish the Right, from the harmony above: the melody note for note and every chord the hymnal’s own. Played on the Salamander Grand Piano V3 by Alexander Holm (CC BY 3.0), with organ, strings, brass and timpani from VSCO 2 Community Edition by Versilian Studios (the organ sampled by Simon Dalzell); drums from Virtuosity Drums and bass from Black And Blue Basses by Versilian Studios and Karoryfer Samples; pads from GeneralUser GS by S. Christian Collins; made with abcMIDI, sfizz, FluidSynth and FFmpeg.
- Rights
- Words 1855, tune 1868, setting 1874: all published before 1931, so public domain in the United States. Checked: words (hymnary.org), tune (hymnary.org), harmony (openhymnal.org).