Scripture Verse

Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. For, lo, He that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is His thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, the Lord, the God of hosts, is His name. Amos 4:12–13

Introduction

portrait
Philip Doddridge
(1702–1751)

Words: Phi­lip Dodd­ridge (1702–1751). Pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly in Hymns Found­ed on Va­ri­ous Texts in the Ho­ly Scrip­tures, by Job Or­ton (Shrop­shire, Eng­land: Jo­shua Ed­dowes & John Cot­ton, 1755), num­ber 156: Pre­par­ing to meet God.

Music: Lam­beth (Schult­hes) Wil­helm A. F. Schul­thes, 1871 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

portrait
Wilhelm A. F. Schulthes
(1816–1879)

Lyrics

He comes, thy God, O Is­ra­el, comes;
Prepare thy God to meet:
Meet Him in bat­tle’s force ar­rayed,
Or hum­bled at His feet.

He formed the mount­ains by His strength;
He makes the winds to blow;
And all the sec­ret thoughts of man
Must his cre­at­or know.

He shades the morn­ing’s op­en­ing rays;
He shakes the so­lid world;
And stars and an­gels from their seats
Are by His thun­der hurled.

Eternal So­ver­eign of the skies,
And shall thine Is­ra­el dare
In mad re­bel­lion to arise,
And tempt th’un­eq­ual war?

Lo, na­tions trem­ble at Thy frown,
And faint be­neath Thy rod;
Crushed by its gent­lest move­ment down,
They fall, tre­men­dous God.

Avert the ter­rors of Thy wrath,
And let Thy mer­cy shine;
While hum­ble pe­ni­tence and pray­er
Approve us tru­ly Thine.