I NEED THEE EVERY HOUR

1872

“I Need Thee Every Hour” has a really human, quietly powerful backstory.

The lyrics were written in 1872 by Annie Sherwood Hawks, a young wife and mother living in Brooklyn, New York. What’s striking is that she later said she wrote the hymn during a season of ordinary happiness, not crisis. She was doing housework one day when the phrase “I need Thee every hour” came to her with unexpected force. Years later, after experiencing loss and hardship, she said she finally understood the words more deeply—almost as if the hymn had been preparing her for suffering she hadn’t yet known.

At the time she wrote it, Hawks wasn’t a professional hymn writer. She was a poet who contributed verses to magazines, and this hymn was initially published as a poem without music.

The music was composed by Robert Lowry, a Baptist minister and prolific hymn composer (also known for “Shall We Gather at the River?”). Lowry read Hawks’s text and felt it needed a refrain, so he added the now-familiar chorus:

I need Thee, O I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee…

That refrain helped turn the poem into a congregational hymn—simple, repetitive, and emotionally direct.

The hymn quickly gained popularity, especially through revival meetings in the late 19th century. It was widely sung in the campaigns of Dwight L. Moody and Ira Sankey, which helped cement its place in American Protestant worship. Its plain language made it accessible across denominations, and it has remained a staple in hymnals ever since.

Why it endures:

• It emphasizes dependence rather than triumph

• It speaks to both daily faith and deep suffering

• It’s intimate—almost a prayer whispered, not a declaration shouted

That quiet vulnerability is probably why it still resonates more than 150 years later.