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 Son.
Refrain

Annie Hawks (this hymn's author) wrote:
One day as a young wife and mo­ther of 37 years of age, I was bu­sy with my 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.