Scripture Verse

Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. Isaiah 51:9

Introduction

portrait
William Shrubsole (1759–1829)

Words: Will­iam Shrub­sole, 1796. This hymn is in­ter­est­ing be­cause of its ref­er­ence to the pro­phe­cy of the Jews’ re­turn to Is­ra­el. Lit­tle did Shru­bsole know the ful­fill­ment was on­ly 150 years away.

Music: Church Tri­um­phant James W. El­li­ott, 1874 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of El­li­ott (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

Arm of the Lord, awake, awake!
Put on Thy strength, the na­tions shake,
And let the world, ador­ing, see
Triumphs of mer­cy wrought by Thee.

Say to the hea­then from Thy throne,
I am Je­ho­vah, God alone;
Thy voice their id­ols shall con­found,
And cast their al­tars to the ground.

No more let crea­ture blood be spilt,
Vain sac­ri­fice for hu­man guilt!
But to each con­sci­ence be ap­plied
The blood that flowed from Je­sus’ side.

Let Zi­on’s time of fa­vor come;
O bring the tribes of Is­ra­el home;
And let our won­der­ing eyes be­hold
Gentiles and Jews in Je­sus’ fold.

Almighty God, Thy grace pro­claim
In ev­ery clime of ev­ery name;
Let ad­verse pow­ers be­fore Thee fall,
And crown the Sav­ior Lord of all.