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Uncle Theology · That Nazarene · Track 4

I’ll Praise My Maker

That NazareneTrack 4 of 6
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About this songIsaac Watts's paraphrase of Psalm 146, reworked — I'll praise my Maker while I've breath, and also after I've tasted death; my lungs were made to be a horn for His majesty.
SourceThe verses are Isaac Watts's hymn “I'll Praise My Maker While I've Breath” (1719), a paraphrase of Psalm 146, as adapted by John Wesley; new outro by Chris Oswald.
About Isaac Watts →
Big ideaBecause the God who made me is the same God who keeps faith with the poor, the blind, the prisoner, and the widow, praise is not a season of life but its permanent vocation — a breath that outlasts breath itself.
Doctrine
Doxology · Creation & providence
Anchor text
Psalm 146 · Psalm 104:33 · Psalm 150:6
Form
Reverb-drenched hymn-drone — a golden-hour doxology floated on Lord Huron echo
Voices
Isaac Watts · John Wesley

I'll praise my Maker while I've breath,
and also after I've tasted death.

Verse 1

Happy the man whose hopes rely
on Israel's God! He made the sky,
and earth, and seas, with all their train:
His truth forever stands secure;
He saves th' oppressed, He feeds the poor,
and none shall find His promise vain.

Chorus

I'll praise my Maker while I've breath,
and also after I've tasted death.

Verse 2

The Lord pours eyesight on the blind;
the Lord supports the fainting mind;
He sends the laboring conscience peace;
He helps the stranger in distress,
the widow and the fatherless,
and grants the prisoner sweet release.

Chorus

I'll praise my Maker while I've breath,
and also after I've tasted death.

Outro

Whether I'm in this life or the next,
my job won't change;
whether filled with earthly or heaven's breath,
my lungs will always proclaim!
My maker made me thus to be
a horn to praise his majesty;
and so both now and then I'll be
worshipping the God who
made and remade me,
made and remade me,
made and remade me.

Scripture References

  1. Psalm 146
  2. Psalm 104:33
  3. Psalm 150:6

Study this song

Teaching aids drawn from the song — for personal study or group discussion.

How the song moves

1
The vow that frames it all
The opening couplet sets the terms: I will praise while I have breath — and, daringly, after death has been tasted, extending the psalmist's lifelong pledge past the grave (Psalm 146:2).
2
Happy is the Maker's man
Verse 1 names the blessed one whose hope rests on Israel's God — the Maker of sky, earth, and seas, whose truth stands secure, who saves the oppressed and feeds the poor (Psalm 146:5-7).
3
The God who lifts the low
Verse 2 catalogs His mercies to the vulnerable: sight to the blind, strength to the fainting, release to the prisoner, care for the stranger, widow, and fatherless (Psalm 146:7-9).
4
Made and remade to sound
Oswald's outro answers the opening vow — the body is a horn built to praise His majesty, so worship simply continues in the next life, offered to the God who both made and remade the singer (Psalm 150:6).

Key terms & allusions

  • "I'll praise my Maker while I've breath" — Isaac Watts's 1719 paraphrase of Psalm 146:2 ("while I live will I praise the LORD"). The breath motif rhymes with Psalm 104:33 ("I will sing unto my God while I have my being") and Psalm 150:6 ("let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD").
  • Isaac Watts (1674-1748) — The "father of English hymnody." This text comes from his Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament (1719), where he deliberately re-voiced the Hebrew psalms through Christ rather than translating them literally.
  • John Wesley's adaptation — Wesley abridged and reshaped Watts's hymn for Methodist use. By long tradition it was among the hymns on his lips as he was dying in 1791 — the vow to "praise after death" sung by a man at death's door.
  • "Happy the man" — Renders the Hebrew 'ashrei — the "Blessed/Happy is he" beatitude that opens Psalm 146:5 ("Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help"), the same blessing-word that opens Psalm 1 and the Beatitudes.
  • "a horn to praise his majesty" / "made and remade me" — Oswald's new outro image. The horn is both an instrument of praise (the trumpet of Psalm 150:3) and a biblical emblem of strength; "remade" names regeneration alongside creation — the Maker who is also the Re-maker of the new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Discussion questions

  1. Psalm 146 anchors praise in what God concretely does for the oppressed, the blind, the prisoner, and the widow. How should that shape what our worship songs are actually about?
  2. Watts vowed to praise "while I've breath, and also after," and Wesley reportedly sang it as he was dying. What does it mean to rehearse now the praise you intend to offer at death?
  3. The outro calls the body "a horn to praise His majesty." How does picturing yourself as an instrument built for praise reframe ordinary, unglamorous days?

For contemplation

  1. Psalm 146:3 warns against trusting "princes." Where are you quietly resting your hope on people or powers that will fail, instead of the God of Jacob?
  2. "Made and remade me." Can you give thanks for the remaking — your regeneration — as gladly as for having been made at all?
  3. If your praise genuinely does not stop at death, what specific fear does that promise quiet in you today?