Thanks to God

Thanks to God for my Redeemer,
Thanks for all Thou dost provide!
Thanks for times now but a memory,
Thanks for Jesus by my side!
Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime,
Thanks for dark and stormy fall!
Thanks for tears by now forgotten,
Thanks for peace within my soul!

Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered,
Thanks for what Thou dost deny!
Thanks for storms that I have weathered,
Thanks for all Thou dost supply!
Thanks for pain, and thanks for pleasure,
Thanks for comfort in despair!
Thanks for grace that none can measure,
Thanks for love beyond compare!

Thanks for roses by the wayside,
Thanks for thorns their stems contain!
Thanks for home and thanks for fireside,
Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!
Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow,
Thanks for heav’nly peace with Thee!
Thanks for hope in the tomorrow,
Thanks through all eternity!

Words: Au­gust L. Storm, in the Swed­ish Sal­va­tion Ar­my pa­per Strids-Ro­pet, 1891; trans­lat­ed from Swed­ish to Eng­lish by Carl E. Back­strom, 1931.
Music: Jo­hann­es A. Hult­man, in Sols­kens­sang­er, 1910 (MI­DI, score).
Al­ter­nate tune: Thanks to God (Steb­bins), George C. Steb­bins (1846-1945) (MI­DI, score) (the words are oft­en sung to this tune in Fin­land)

http://nethymnal.org/htm/t/h/thankstg.htm

My parents were married in a Swedish Baptist church, and the hymnal had a special section in the back of Swedish hymns in translation. While we sang a wide variety of hymns both in church and at home, and my mother often sang hymns to us as she rocked us in her old rocking chair, when I think of those times, it’s the Swedish hymns I remember.