I must tell Jesus all of my trials,
I cannot bear these burdens alone;
In my distress He kindly will help me,
He ever loves and cares for His own.
I must tell Jesus! I must tell Jesus!
I cannot bear my burdens alone;
I must tell Jesus! I must tell Jesus!
Jesus can help me, Jesus alone.
I must tell Jesus all of my troubles,
He is a kind, compassionate Friend;
If I but ask Him, He will deliver,
Make of my troubles quickly an end.
Tempted and tried I need a great Savior,
One who can help my burdens to bear;
I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus,
He all my cares and sorrows will share.
Public domain hymn text (1893). Words by Elisha A. Hoffman.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Elisha A. Hoffman, already discussed elsewhere in this collection as author of 'Are You Washed in the Blood' (hymn 44) and 'Leaning on the Everlasting Arms' (hymn 72), wrote this hymn's words and music together in 1893, drawing again, as in several of his other hymns, on his considerable direct pastoral experience visiting parishioners facing genuine personal hardship and distress.
Hoffman reportedly wrote the hymn after visiting a woman in his congregation who was going through a period of intense personal grief; unable to offer any solution to her specific circumstances, he found himself simply repeating that she needed to 'tell Jesus' about her trouble, a phrase that stayed with him and became the basis for this hymn's text and its insistently repeated three-word chorus.
The hymn's repeated emphasis on the specific act of verbally, actively 'telling' Jesus about one's difficulties — rather than simply enduring them privately or silently — reflects a broader pastoral conviction found throughout much of Hoffman's hymn writing: that articulating one's distress directly to God in prayer, rather than carrying it silently and alone, constitutes an important and necessary part of genuine Christian coping with hardship.
The hymn's insistent, almost pleading repetition of its own title phrase throughout both verses and chorus gives it an unusually direct, urgent emotional register compared to some of Hoffman's more measured hymns, reflecting its origins in a specific, real pastoral encounter with someone in acute personal distress rather than in more general, abstract theological reflection composed at a comfortable remove from any particular person's immediate suffering.
