My Faith Looks Up to Thee

The story of this hymn

Ray Palmer was twenty-two, newly graduated from Yale and worn down by a year of teaching and poor health, when he wrote these lines in a New York boarding house in 1830 — for himself, he said, with no thought of publication. Two years later Lowell Mason met him in a Boston street, asked for hymns for a new collection, composed the tune 'Olivet' for this one, and told Palmer he would be remembered chiefly as its author. He was.

Where it sits in the service

A quiet hymn of personal trust, best placed in the middle of the service — after the tributes or before the closing prayers — rather than as a processional. The final verse, 'When ends life's transient dream', is the reason it is chosen for funerals, so keep all four verses, and never split a verse across a page turn.

In the programme, list it in the order of service as “Hymn — My Faith Looks Up to Thee” with the leader or choir named beside it.

How it is actually sung

A personal, quiet hymn of trust rather than a congregational showpiece. Four verses. It suits a small service or a memorial far better than a full church, and it does not carry outdoors at all — do not choose it for a graveside. Familiar in traditional congregations and much less so elsewhere, so a soloist or the choir leading is usually the safer arrangement.

Printing the words

Public domain. Print all four; this is a hymn read from the page rather than sung from memory in most congregations today.

This is practical guidance rather than legal advice. Reproduction rights vary by territory, by hymnal edition and by the licence your church holds — the church office is the right place to ask, and they answer this question often.