What a Friend We Have in Jesus!
One of the 94 hymns we sing together at Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church on the Gold Coast. Browse the full hymnbook.
Lyrics
Verse 1
What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
Verse 2
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to
the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to
the Lord in prayer.
Verse 3
Are we weak and heavy laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge, take it to
the Lord in prayer.
Do your friends despise, forsake you?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield you; you will
find a solace there.
Behind the Hymn
"What a Friend We Have in Jesus" was written by Joseph Medlicott Scriven around 1855 under deeply personal circumstances. Scriven was an Irishman from a privileged family who had graduated from Trinity College Dublin, but his life was marked by profound tragedy — his fiancée drowned the evening before their wedding. Devastated, he emigrated to Canada, where he devoted himself to serving the poor, often giving away his own possessions and sawing wood for widows who couldn't afford to pay. He wrote this hymn to comfort his mother back in Ireland during a time of illness, never intending it for publication. When a friend discovered the poem by his bedside and asked about it, Scriven reportedly said, "The Lord and I did it between us." The hymn's simple message — that Jesus is a friend who invites us to bring everything to Him in prayer — resonated so deeply that it was published and spread across the world. Scriven himself died in poverty in Ontario in 1886, but his quiet hymn of comfort has ministered to millions.