This hymn was first published in Watts' The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament (1719) as a paraphrase of Psalm 90 with nine stanzas. In 1738 John Wesley published a version which changed the first word from "Our" to "O"; both versions remain in common usage. The hymn is commonly sung to tune "St. Anne" (1708) by William Croft.