Let All Things Now Living

A Song of Thanksgiving

Let All Things Now Living, first published in 1939 was written by composer and pianist: Katherine Davis (1892-1980). Her best known composition is the Christmas favourite, The Little Drummer Boy (1941). Let All Things Now Living is the best known of her hymns. It is set to the traditional Welsh melody, Llwyn Onn which is best known as the setting for John Oxenford's The Ash Grove. In the Liturgy of the Hours, Let All Things Now Living is used during Ordinary Time for Evening Prayer.



LET ALL THINGS NOW LIVING by Katherine Kennicott Davis, 1939 (Public Domain)

Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving to God our Creator triumphantly raise;
Who fashioned and made us, protected and stayed us, by guiding us onto the end of our days,
His banners are o'er us, his light goes before us, a pillar of fire shining forth in the night:
Till shadows have vanished and darkness is banished, as forward we travel from light into light.

His law he enforces, the stars in their courses, the sun in its orbit obediently shine,
The hills and the mountains, the rivers and fountains, the depths of the ocean proclaim God divine.
We too, should be voicing our love and rejoicing with glad adoration, a song let us raise:
Till all things now living unite in thanksgiving, to God in the highest, hosanna and praise.