Text by: William F Lloyd 1791-1853

Tune YouTube Composer
Boylston https://youtu.be/qXzs3jdmLlA Lowell Mason
Ferguson https://youtu.be/aXOHWsXhmiA George Kingsley
Our Times https://youtu.be/NGyNDmiFKJM Homer Hammontree
Silchester https://youtu.be/VpfEDW_D65Q Unknown
  1. My times are in thy hand;

My God, I wish them there;

My life, my friends, my soul I leave

Entirely to thy care.

  1. My times are in thy hand;

Whatever they may be;

Pleasing or painful, dark or bright,

As best may seem to thee.

  1. My times are in thy hand;

Why should I doubt or fear?

My Father’s hand will never cause

His child a needless tear.

  1. My times are in thy hand,

Jesus, the Crucified!

Those hands my cruel sins had pierced

Are now my guard and guide.

  1. My times are in Thy hand,

Jesus, my advocate:

Nor shall Thine hand be stretched in vain,

For me to supplicate.

  1. My times are in Thy hand,

I’ll always trust in Thee;

And, after death, at Thy right hand

I shall forever be.

I can add nothing to what the Psalmist and Dr. Spurgeon have to say, I will leave it to them.

Psalm 31

9 Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. 10 For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. 11 I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me. 12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel. 13 For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life. 14 But I trusted in thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my God. 15 My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me. 16 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies’ sake. 17 Let me not be ashamed, O Lord; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. 18 Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. 19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! 20 Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. 21 Blessed be the Lord: for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city.

Dr. Spurgeon

The great truth is this—all that concerns the believer is in the hands of the Almighty God. “My times”, these change and shift; but they change only in accordance with unchanging love, and they shift only according to the purpose of One with whom is no variableness nor shadow of a turning. “My times”, that is to say, my ups and my downs, my health and my sickness, my poverty and my wealth—all those are in the hand of the Lord, who arranges and appoints according to his holy will the length of my days, and the darkness of my nights. Storms and calms vary the seasons at the divine appointment. Whether times are reviving or depressing remains with him who is Lord both of time and of eternity; and we are glad it is so.
We assent to the statement, “My times are in thy hand,” as to their result. Whatever is to come out of our life, is in our heavenly Father’s hand. He guards the vine of life, and he also protects the clusters which shall be produced thereby. If life be as a field, the field is under the hand of the great Husbandman, and the harvest of that field is with him also. The ultimate results of his work of grace upon us, and of his education of us in this life, are in the highest hand. We are not in our own hands, nor in the hands of earthly teachers; but we are under the skillful operation of hands which make nothing in vain. The close of life is not decided by the sharp knife of the fates; but by the hand of love. We shall not die before our time, neither shall we be forgotten and left upon the stage too long.
Not only are we ourselves in the hand of the Lord, but all that surrounds us. Our times make up a kind of atmosphere of existence; and all this is under diving arrangement. We dwell within the palm of God’s hand. We are absolutely at his disposal, and all our circumstances are arranged by him in all their details. We are comforted to have it so.

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Episcopal 1940 Hymnal: http://amzn.to/2DEOl1H 

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Pilgrim 1935 Hymnal: http://amzn.to/2DDvbJC

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References:

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American Hymns Old and New https://amzn.to/3fqkkVU