When we compiled our hymnbook, we included a hymn that was chosen, not because any of us had ever heard it before, but simply because we liked the words. It quickly became a favourite.
I need Thee, precious Saviour!
Oh, Thou art all to me;
Before the throne forever,
I stand complete in Thee.
Tho’ Satan loud accuses,
Yet I can ever see,
The blood of Christ most precious,
The sinner’s perfect plea.
I need Thee, precious Saviour!
For I am very poor;
A stranger and a pilgrim,
I have no earthly store.
I need Thy love, Lord Jesus,
To cheer me on my way,
To guide my doubting footsteps,
To be my strength and stay.
I need Thee, precious Saviour!
I need a friend like Thee,
A friend to soothe and comfort,
A friend to care for me.
I need Thy heart, Lord Jesus,
To feel each anxious care,
To bear my ev’ry burden,
And all my sorrow share.
I need Thee, precious Saviour!
I need Thee, day by day,
To fill me with Thy fullness,
To lead me on my way;
I need Thy Holy Spirit,
To teach me what I am—
To show me more of Jesus,
To point me to the Lamb.
I need Thee, precious Saviour!
And hope to see Thee soon,
Encircled with the rainbow,
And seated on Thy throne.
There, with Thy blood-bought people,
My joy shall ever be,
To sing Thy praise, Lord Jesus,
And ever gaze on Thee.
Written by Frederick Whitfield (1829-1904), we sing it to a lovely Norwegian folk tune, arranged by Dagfinn Moe, who kindly gave us permission to use it in our hymnbook.
He set the tune to another hymn (which we also have in our hymnbook), “Rejoice, Rejoice, Believers!” You can hear it at Score Exchange. (That link will show a sample page in seView, but if you click on the “Scorch plug-in” button, you can play the tune. If you need the plug-in, you can install it here).
Perhaps tomorrow I will post “Rejoice, Rejoice, Believers!” with the tune we use for it.
Mind Renewers 
Great lyrics. They don’t make them like that much any more.
What a beautiful hymn. Recently I was going through a bit of discouragement and am working my way out of the muck once again. These words fit how I am feeling right now. Thank you for posting this.
Thank you both for the comments. Yes, it’s a beautiful hymn.
Glenn, check out this one from David Benning, which is also in our hymnbook. http://holymeasures.com/songs/preview.php?my=32. You’ll have to click on the “Show Lyrics” button. Great hymn, one of my absolute favourites. I probably should ask him if I can post it here. He has several excellent hymns you can access here: http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/dbenning. We have Salvation’s Hymn, By Grace, and Tree in a Garden in our hymnbook.
Mary Rose Jensen is writing some really nice music. We have fourteen of hers in our book. You can access her work here: http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/maryrosejensen.
Timothy Dudley Smith has written some wonderful hymns. He’s getting up in years, I don’t know if he is still writing or not. We have Lord of the Church and Born By the Holy Spirit’s Breath.
There are some really good new hymns out there, if you go looking. It’s just that we aren’t likely to hear about them much, because the fluff is popular.
It’s good to know that there are still writers out there who “get it.”
Yes, it is!
There’s some more good ones at http://churchworksmedia.com/hymns. I like “His Robes for Mine” and “My Jesus, Fair”.
The OPC hymnbook has some good ones too: http://opc.org/hymn.html?list_type=alpha. Mostly (not exclusively) the older ones, but some that are not as well-known as they should be.
‘I need Thee, precious Saviour’ is in one of the hymn books we use, ‘The Believers Hymnbook’. However, I have not hear it sung very often. Lovely words.
I think we found it in an old Pentecostal hymnbook. I suspect if we’d had a copy of ‘The Believers Hymnbook’ at the time we’d have found quite a few from it that we wanted — but we found lots of good ones to sing!