Scripture Verse

O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come. Psalm 65:2

Introduction

Words: John H. Gu­rney, A Col­lect­ion of Hymns for Pub­lic Wor­ship (Lut­ter­worth, Eng­land: 1838), num­ber 76.

Music: Old 137th Day’s Psal­ter, 1563 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

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

Lyrics

Great King of na­tions, hear our pray­er,
While at Thy feet we fall,
And hum­bly with unit­ed cry
To Thee for mer­cy call;
The guilt is ours, but grace is Thine,
O turn us not away;
But hear us from Thy lof­ty throne,
And help us when we pray.

Our fa­thers’ sins were ma­ni­fold,
And ours no less we own,
Yet won­drously from age to age
Thy good­ness has been shown;
When dan­gers, like a stor­my sea,
Beset our coun­try round,
To Thee we looked, to Thee we cried,
And help in Thee was found.

With one con­sent we meek­ly bow
Beneath Thy chast­en­ing hand,
And, pour­ing forth con­fess­ion meet,
Mourn with our mourn­ing land;
With pi­tying eye be­hold our need,
As thus we lift our pray­er;
Correct us with Thy judg­ments, Lord,
Then let Thy mer­cy spare.