Lyrics
I know that my Redeemer lives;
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who once was dead;
He lives, my ever-living Head.
He lives triumphant from the grave,
He lives eternally to save,
He lives all-glorious in the sky,
He lives exalted there on high.
He lives to bless me with His love,
He lives to plead for me above,
He lives my hungry soul to feed,
He lives to help in time of need.
He lives to grant me rich supply,
He lives to guide me with His eye,
He lives to comfort me when faint,
He lives to hear my soul's complaint.
He lives to silence all my fears,
He lives to wipe away my tears,
He lives to calm my troubled heart,
He lives all blessings to impart.
He lives, my kind, wise, heavenly Friend,
He lives and loves me to the end;
He lives, and while He lives, I'll sing;
He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.
He lives and grants me daily breath;
He lives, and I shall conquer death;
He lives my mansion to prepare;
He lives to bring me safely there.
He lives, all glory to His name!
He lives, my Jesus, still the same.
Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives,
'I know that my Redeemer lives!'
Public domain hymn text (1775). Words by Samuel Medley.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Samuel Medley spent much of his youth at sea in the British Royal Navy, and his path toward faith began not in a church but aboard ship, after he was severely wounded in the leg during a naval engagement in 1759 and feared the limb, and possibly his life, would be lost.
While recovering, Medley happened to have a sermon by Isaac Watts read aloud to him by his own grandfather, and the experience marked the beginning of a serious, lasting conversion that eventually led him away from the navy and into pastoral ministry.
He went on to become a Baptist minister, serving congregations in Watford and later at a large, influential church in Liverpool, a city whose busy docks meant his congregation regularly included many sailors, a population he understood firsthand from his own years at sea.
Medley wrote 'I Know That My Redeemer Lives' in 1775, drawing its title and central confidence directly from Job 19:25, one of the Old Testament's clearest personal statements of resurrection hope, in which Job declares, 'I know that my redeemer liveth.'
The hymn's structure is deliberately repetitive, opening nearly every line of its later verses with the same insistent phrase, 'He lives,' a technique that turns the text almost into a spoken creed, built for congregations to declare together rather than merely to read.
Medley published several volumes of hymns over his ministry, and this one became one of his most widely used, valued for the way its plain, repeated confession gives worshippers a way to state resurrection faith directly, without elaborate argument or poetic detour.
Later hymnals commonly paired the text with the tune DUKE STREET, composed by John Hatton around 1793, whose steady, march-like rhythm suits the hymn's declarative, almost defiant repetition of 'He lives' verse after verse.
