My Reins, My Fabric’s Every Part

My reigns

my fab­ric’s ev­ery part

O Lord

the won­ders of Thy art

Proclaim

and prompt my will­ing tongue

To me­di­tate the grate­ful song:

With deep­est awe my thought this frame

Surveys—I trem­ble that I am.

While yet a strang­er to the day

Within the burd­ened womb I lay

My bones

fa­mil­iar to Thy view

By just de­grees to firm­ness grew:

Thy pow­er my li­nea­ments be­gan

To shapes pre­scribed the tex­ture ran.

Day to suc­ceed­ing day con­signed

Th’unfinished birth; Thy migh­ty mind

Each limb

each nerve

ere yet they were

Contemplated dis­tinct and clear;

Those nerves Thy cu­ri­ous fin­ger spun

Those limbs it fa­shioned one by one.

And

as Thy pen in fair de­sign

Traced on Thy book each sha­do­wy line

Thy hand­maid Na­ture read them there

And made the grow­ing work her care

Conformed it to th’un­err­ing plan

And gra­du­al wrought me in­to man.