A DIVINE POEM
English poet and essayist, Joseph Addison
(1.5.1672—17.6.1719) wrote a poem with
the title “When All Thy Mercies , O MY GOD” and published it
in his newspaper “The Spectatator” on
9 August 1712. It is a hymn inspired by Psalm 89:1 “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever “ and was first
published following an essay on gratitude, accompanied by the following introduction:
“I have already obliged the public with
some pieces of divine poetry which have fallen into my hands, and as they have
met with the reception they deserve, I shall from time to time, communicate any
work of the same nature which has not appeared in print, and may be acceptable
to my readers.”
“When All Thy Mercies, O My God ” is a great poem of gratitude to
God whose mercies are unlimited and are provided to every human being from the
beginning till the death of his life. The poem gives concrete examples like:
Unnumbered comforts to my soul
Thy tender care bestowed,
Before my tender heart conceived
From whom those comforts flowed.
It is not
only in present life that God pours His manifold mercies upon His children but
as the poet says:
Through every period of my life
Thy goodness I’ll pursue
And after death, in distant worlds,
The glorious theme
renew.
The poem ends with the stanza”
Through
all eternity to Thee
A
joyful song I’ll raise;
For, oh, eternity’s is too short
To
utter all Thy praise!
The lyrical quality of the poem has made it an
all-time popular hymn.
Here are three more exemplary stanzas:
When in the slippery paths of youth
With heedless steps I ran,
Thine arm unseen conveyed me safe
And led me up to man.
Through hidden dangers, toils and
deaths,
It gently cleared my way;
And through the passing snares of
vice,
More to be feared than they.
O how shall words with equal warmth
The gratitude declare,
That glows within my ravished heart?
But thou canst read it there.
********
G. R. Kanwal
1st July 2023
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