Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Psalm 51:10
Words: Walter C. Smith, in Worship in the School Room, edited by W. T. Wylie (New York: Schermerhorn, Bancroft, 1865).
Music: Fred H. Byshe (🔊 pdf nwc).
Alternate Tunes:
If you know when the words or music were written, or where to get a good picture of Byshe (head-and-shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
One thing I of the Lord desire,
For all my path hath miry been,
Be it by water or by fire,
O make me clean, O make me clean.
Refrain
Wash me, Thou, without, within,
Or purge with fire, if that must be,
Anyhow, if only sin
Die out in me, die out, die out in me.
If clearer vision Thou impart,
Grateful and glad my soul shall be;
But yet to have a purer heart
Is more to me, is more to me.
Refrain
Yea, only as this heart is clean
May larger vision yet be mine,
For mirrored in its depths are seen
The things divine, the things divine.
Refrain
I watch to shun the miry way,
And stanch the springs of guilty thought,
But, watch and struggle as I may,
Pure I am not, pure I am not.
Refrain