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The Lord Is My Portion

I

From pole to pole let others roam,
And search in vain for bliss;
My soul is satisfied at home,
The Lord my portion is.

II

Jesus, who on his glorious throne,
Rules heaven and earth and sea,
Is pleased to claim me for his own,
And give himself to me.

III

His person fixes all my love,
His blood removes my fear;
And while he pleads for me above,
His arm preserves me here.

IV

His word of promise is my food,
His Spirit is my guide;
Thus daily is my strength renewed,
And all my wants supplied.

V

For him I count as gain each loss,
Disgrace for him renown;
Well may I glory in his cross,
While he prepares my crown!

VI

Let worldlings then indulge their boast,
How much they gain or spend;
Their joys must soon give up the ghost,
But mine shall know no end.

Where this text comes from

First published in Olney Hymns (1779). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1] [2] [3]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-15.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/john-newton_william-cowper_olney-hymns, book-1.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L24.

Cite this poem

John Newton (1725–1807). “The Lord Is My Portion.” First published in Olney Hymns (1779). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/john-newton/the-lord-is-my-portion/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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