Lyrics
Hark, my soul! It is the Lord;
'Tis thy Savior, hear His word;
Jesus speaks, and speaks to thee,
'Say, poor sinner, lov'st thou Me?'
'I delivered thee when bound,
And, when wounded, healed thy wound;
Sought thee wandering, set thee right,
Turned thy darkness into light.'
'Can a woman's tender care
Cease toward the child she bare?
Yes, she may forgetful be,
Yet will I remember thee.'
'Mine is an unchanging love,
Higher than the heights above,
Deeper than the depths beneath,
Free and faithful, strong as death.'
'Thou shalt see My glory soon,
When the work of grace is done;
Partner of My throne shalt be:
Say, poor sinner, lov'st thou Me?'
Lord, it is my chief complaint
That my love is weak and faint;
Yet I love Thee, and adore;
O for grace to love Thee more!
Public domain hymn text (1768). Words by William Cowper.
The Story Behind the Hymn
William Cowper wrote 'Hark, My Soul! It Is the Lord' in 1768, before his later, better-known collaboration with John Newton on the Olney Hymns, during a period when he was already deeply engaged in devotional writing despite his ongoing struggles with mental and spiritual anguish.
The hymn's structure is built almost entirely around direct speech, with Christ addressing the singer personally throughout most of the text, a device that gives the hymn an unusually intimate, conversational quality compared to hymns that describe God from a more distant, third-person perspective.
Its central question, 'lov'st thou Me?,' echoes Christ's own threefold question to Peter in John 21 following the resurrection, 'lovest thou me more than these?,' a moment traditionally read as Peter's restoration after his earlier denial.
By putting that same searching question directly to the singer, addressed as 'poor sinner,' the hymn positions every singer in a role similar to Peter's, someone who has failed and is nonetheless being asked, gently but directly, to reaffirm love rather than being condemned outright.
Christ's voice continues for four more stanzas, moving from a recounted history of specific rescues, being freed from bondage, healed while wounded, sought while wandering, to a series of tender comparisons and promises: a mother's abiding love drawn from Isaiah 49:15, an 'unchanging love' higher and deeper than any measure, and the promise that the redeemed sinner will one day be 'partner' of Christ's own throne.
That structure, moving from a direct personal question to a recounted history of specific rescues, builds the hymn's case for love not through argument but through recollection, asking the singer to answer Christ's question in light of what has already, concretely, been done for them.
The hymn closes with the singer's own faltering reply, a final stanza spoken not by Christ but by the sinner, confessing that human love remains 'weak and faint' even as it reaches out in adoration and prays for grace to love more fully.
Cowper's hymn remained a valued text for personal devotion and self-examination throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, prized for the directness with which it puts Christ's own voice, and Christ's own question, immediately in front of the singer rather than leaving Him at a descriptive distance.
