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HAVE MERCY, LORD, ON US! WE PRAY

Scripture Verse

Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth…No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Hebrews 12:6,11

Introduction

portrait
Paul B. Henkel (1754–1825)

Words: Paul B. Hen­kel, Church Hymn Book (New Mar­ket, Vir­gin­ia: So­lo­mon Hen­kel, 1816), num­ber 157, alt. Note: The 1816 edi­tion of this hym­nal does not name the au­thor. Paul Hen­kel’s son, Am­brose Hen­kel, iden­ti­fies his fa­ther as the au­thor by a dou­ble dag­ger symb­ol (‡) in the 1838 edi­tion, page 440.

Music: Wind­sor Chris­to­pher Tye, 1533. Ar­ranged in the Booke of Mu­sicke, by Will­iam Daman, 1591 (🔊 ).

Alternate Tunes:

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Tye (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els), or a bet­ter one of Hen­kel, would you send us an e-mail?

Lyrics

Have mer­cy Lord, on us we pray,
Thy grace to us re­veal;
O turn Thy plagues from us away
Tho’ we de­serve them well.

Thy pun­ish­ments are just­ly due,
And an­swer to our crimes!
And we are made to feel them too,
In these dis­tress­ing times.

Lord, what de­struct­ion death has made,
How has it swept our towns;
So ma­ny num­bered with the dead,
In neigh­bor­ing places round.

Death vi­sits us in all our homes,
And there makes his ab­ode:
And hur­ries mor­tals to their tombs,
That sink be­neath his load.

Well may we sor­row, weep and mourn,
And pray with all our heart:
That God in mer­cy may re­turn,
And bid our plagues de­part.