There are three great thoughts expressed in this one phrase that are worthy of some deep consideration.  I need thee every hour.  The foundation truth is simply an expression of a reality that every person needs God.  This truth stands alone regardless of whether a person knows or acknowledges their need for God it still exists.  By the nature of our creation we are incomplete.  We are dependent and because of this dependency we will always have needs.  We are often appalled at the idea of being in need.  We see our need as an anomaly that must be removed instead of the reality of our being.  We are created to be unable to fulfill ourselves or each other.  Need is as much a factor in our situation as gravity is.  Both were created by the same being and both exist with purpose and intent.

The second thought is the recognition of need.  The sentiment of the song is not just about need for God but a realization of it.  The singer has embraced the fact that he needs God every hour.  He doesn't sing the song with regret or a stubborn surrender.  The song is a celebration of an end to the fruitless effort to provide everything for ourselves.  Our need for God will always be a thorn in our flesh until we embrace it.  The need is always real but the recognition of it can be absent or fake.  Many very religious people are often the most self-sufficient.  The kind of life that recognizes the need for God is a life that depends upon Him.  Many people live a kind of religious life that if it were proven definitively tomorrow that God did not exist, they could continue to live exactly the same way.  A life that recognizes its need for God is one that risks everything on the confidence that God will deliver.  Paul said that if there is no resurrection after death then true Christians are to be the most pitied of all people.

The third great thought expressed in these words is the continual nature of our need for God.  We need Him every hour.  Often when we think of our need for God it revolves around death and life after death.  Even the most unreligious often express sentiments toward and about God when they run out of all other options.  We need God in every period and facet of our lives.  The fullness of God comes through His drawing of us into a kind of life which revolves around Him.  Jesus did not come simply to give people a way to die and go to heaven.  He did not come to convince people to say a fifteen second prayer and have their ticket punched.  Jesus came to call people to a way of life.  That way of life is sustained by consistently drinking from a particular well and eating particular bread.  As the prophet Micah instructs, what God asks of us is that we walk humbly with our Lord.  A walk with God as followers of Jesus Christ is the most accurate way to understand what we are called to.  Our constant need for God is not a sign of weakness or a lack of growth.  From the weakest to the strongest and from the youngest to the oldest we all need God every hour by design.

How can we make proper application of these thoughts expressed in this old song?  The insufficiency that you see in yourself and others represents an underlying reality.  It is not simply a matter of making more progress.  If we simply acknowledge the fact that we need God what kind of life would be the most effective way of embracing this need?   Arrogance and bravado are always based upon denied insufficiency.  When our public lives depict a person that we are not and our hopes and dreams require a person that we cannot be then only a fall can follow.  All the famous people are so quick to advise others to find success in simply being themselves.  A major tenet of being ourselves must involve not trying to be more than ourselves.  We can't live as though we have solutions that we don't have.  We can't live as though we control things that we don't control.  We can't claim being self-made people when we know that often our success comes as much in spite of ourselves as it does because of ourselves.

How much do I need God every hour?  I need Him so much as I strive to be a father, husband, brother, friend, neighbor, teacher, etc.  I need Him to help me, to guide me, to forgive me, to redeem me from the pits I sometimes fall in.  I need Him to correct me when I am about to harm something precious.  I need Him to strengthen me as I approach my senior years.  I need Him to have mercy on me for things I should not do.  I need Him to show grace toward me when I need things that I have no way to get without Him.  I need Him to help me not be angry and bitter and resentful and destructive and driven by my appetites.  I need Him to help me love in ways that I know I can't generate on my own.

You don't have to decide if you need God.  That has already been decided and you do.  You have to decide if you will admit it in a lifestyle kind of way.  The depth of our need is only matched by the depth of God's love flowing through Jesus Christ.

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.