STUDY / LIVING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE / HYMNS

My God, how many are my fears! Doubts and fears supprest; or, God our defence from sin and Satan

Isaac Watts's setting of Psalm 3, printed in 1719 in The Psalms of David Imitated, where he set the psalms "in the language of the New Testament".

WRITTEN BY

Isaac Watts 1674–1748

PRINTED

1719 The Psalms of David Imitated · no. 1

METRE

Common Metre 8.6.8.6 · 8 stanzas

WRITTEN ON

Psalm 3 the verse printed above it

The hymn, and the Scripture in it

All 8 stanzas as Watts printed them, with the verses their lines echo beside them. Point at a line to join it to its verse; click to read the passage.

SHARED WORDSthe verse shares the line's wording ECHOproposed by an AI model, confirmed by a separate check Not the author's own notes

AMONG THE SCRIPTURES

The stanzas at the centre; around them, every book its heading and its echoes come from, Old Testament on the left and New on the right. Choose a stanza or a book.

a line echoes this verse its heading or an echo comes from here

STANZA I

My God, how many are my fears

My God, how many are my fears!

How fast my foes increase!

Conspiring my eternal death,

They break my present peace.

The psalm it sets

Watts made this hymn from Psalm 3, "in the language of the New Testament": a paraphrase, not a translation. The line that comes closest to it is marked.

1O LORD, how my foes have increased! How many rise up against me! 2Many say of me, “God will not deliver him.” Selah 3But You, O LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head. 4To the LORD I cry aloud, and He answers me from His holy mountain. Selah … 4 more verses PSALM 3 · ITS FIRST VERSES · BEREAN STANDARD BIBLE READ PSALM 3

My God, how many are my fears! How fast my foes increase! Conspiring my eternal death, They break my present peace. STANZA I

Its place in the book

Watts's psalms run from Psalm 1 to Psalm 150, several settings to many psalms: 367 hymns. This is number 1. Point at a tick to see the hymn; click it to open that hymn.

NO. 1 · ISAAC WATTS · THIS HYMN My God, how many are my fears!

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