Scripture Verse

The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. Isaiah 35:1

Introduction

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Ignaz J. Pleyel (1757–1831)

Words: Un­known au­thor, in the Chris­tian’s Ma­ga­zine, Feb­ru­ary 1766, ti­tled A New Ode as Sung by the Wo­men at the Mag­da­len Cha­pel. Ju­li­an be­lieved the au­thor was prob­ab­ly the ma­ga­zine’s ed­it­or, Will­iam Dodd. The words have been pub­lished in num­er­ous forms; the orig­in­al ver­sion is at the end of this page.

Music: Pley­el’s Hymn Ig­naz J. Pley­el, 1791 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

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William Dodd (1729–1777)

Charles Wes­ley’s ver­sion, from The Po­et­ic­al Works of John and Charles Wes­ley, Vol­ume 1, pag­es 290–92:

Heavenly Fa­ther, so­ver­eign Lord,
Ever faith­ful to Thy word,
Humbly we our seal set to,
Testify that Thou art true.

Lo! for us the wilds are glad,
All in cheer­ful green ar­rayed,
Opening sweets they all dis­close,
Bud and blos­som as the rose.

Hark! the wastes have found a voice,
Lonely de­serts now re­joice,
Gladsome hal­le­lu­jahs sing,
All around with prais­es ring.

Lo! abun­dant­ly they bloom,
Lebanon is hi­ther come,
Carmel’s stores the heav’ns dis­pense,
Sharon’s fer­tile ex­cel­lence.

See, these bar­ren souls of ours
Bloom, and put forth fruits and flow­ers—
Flowers of Ed­en, fruits of grace,
Peace, and joy, and right­eous­ness.

We be­hold (the ab­jects we)
Christ, the in­car­nate De­ity—
Christ, in whom Thy glo­ries shine,
Excellence of strength di­vine.

Ye that trem­ble at His frown,
He shall lift your hands cast down;
Christ, who all your weak­ness sees,
He shall prop your fe­eble knees.

Ye of fear­ful hearts, be strong;
Jesus will not tar­ry long;
Fear not, lest His truth should fail,
Jesus is un­chang­ea­ble.

God, your God, shall sure­ly come,
Quell your foes, and seal their doom,
He shall come and save you too;
We, O Lord, have found Thee true.

Blind we were, but now we see,
Deaf—we heark­en now to Thee,
Dumb—for Thee our tongues em­ploy,
Lame—and, lo! we leap for joy!

Faint we were, and parched with drought,
Water at Thy word gushed out;
Streams of grace our thirst re­fresh,
Starting from the wil­der­ness.

Still we gasp Thy grace to know,
Here for ev­er let it flow,
Make the thirs­ty land a pool,
Fix the Spir­it in our soul.

Where the an­cient dra­gon lay,
Open for Thy­self a way;
There let ho­ly tem­pers rise,
All the fruits of pa­ra­dise.

Lead us in the way of peace,
In the path of right­eous­ness,
Never by the sin­ner trod,
Till he feels the cleans­ing blood.

There the sim­ple can­not stray;
Babes, though blind, may find their way—
Find, nor ever thence de­part,
Safe in low­li­ness of heart.

Far from fear, from dan­ger far,
No de­vour­ing beast is there;
There the hum­ble walk se­cure,
God hath made their foot­steps sure.

Jesu, migh­ty to re­deem,
Let our lot be cast with them:
Far from earth our souls re­move,
Ransomed by Thy dy­ing love.

Leave us not be­low to mourn;
Fain we would to Thee re­turn,
Crowned with right­eous­ness arise
Far above these ne­ther skies.

Come, and all our sor­rows chase,
Wipe the tears from ev­ery face;
Gladness let us now ob­tain,
Partners of Thy end­less reign.

Death, the lat­est foe, de­stroy;
Sorrow then shall yield to joy,
Gloomy grief shall flee away,
Swallowed up end­less day.

A mo­di­fied cen­to from Wes­ley’s ver­sion, in A Book of Hymns for Pub­lic and Pri­vate De­vo­tion, 10th edi­tion, by Sam­uel Long­fel­low (Bos­ton, Mas­sa­chu­setts: Tick­nor & Fields, 1848), num­ber 598— The Pro­phet’s Vi­sion:

Faint the earth, and parched with drought,
Make the wa­ters, Lord, gush out!
Streams of love our thirst to bless,
Starting in the wil­der­ness.
Long we wait Thy peace to know:
Father, bid the wa­ters flow,
Make the thirsty land a pool,
Make man’s suf­fer­ing spir­it whole.

Hark! the wastes have found a voice;
Loneliest de­serts now re­joice,
When the Lord His pre­sence shows,
Lo, they blos­som like the rose;
See! This bar­ren earth of ours
Buds and puts forth fruits and flow­ers,
Flowers of Ed­en, fruits of peace,
Love and joy and right­eous­ness!

Benjamin Will­iams’ ver­sion, alt.

Heavenly Fa­ther, so­ver­eign Lord,
Be Thy glo­ri­ous name ad­ored!
Lord, Thy mer­cies ne­ver fail;
Hail, ce­les­ti­al Good­ness, hail!

Though un­wor­thy of Thine ear,
Deign our hum­ble songs to hear;
Purer praise we hope to bring,
When around Thy throne we sing.

While on earth or­dained to stay,
Guide our footsteps in Thy way,
Till we come to dwell with Thee,
Till we all Thy glo­ry see.

When, with an­gel harps again,
We will wake a nob­ler strain;
There, in joy­ful songs of praise,
Our tri­um­phant songs we raise.

Original ver­sion (omit­ting re­pe­ti­tions):

Grateful notes and num­bers bring;
While Je­ho­vah’s praise we sing:
Holy, ho­ly, ho­ly, Lord!
Be Thy glo­ri­ous name ad­ored.

Men on earth, and saints above,
Sing the great Re­deem­er’s love:
Lord, Thy mer­cies ne­ver fail!
Hail, ce­les­ti­al good­ness, hail!

Though un­wor­thy, Lord, Thine ear,
Our hum­ble hal­le­lu­jahs hear;
Purer praise hope to bring
When with saints we stand and sing.

Lead us to that bliss­ful state,
Where Thou reign­est su­preme­ly great;
Look with pi­ty from Thy throne,
And send Thy Ho­ly Spir­it down.

While on earth or­dained to stay
Guide our foot­steps in Thy way;
Till we come to reign with Thee,
And all Thy glo­ri­ous great­ness see.

Then with an­gels we’ll again
Wake a loud­er, loud­er strain;
There, in joy­ful songs of praise,
We’ll our grate­ful voices raise.

There no tongue shall si­lent be:
There all shall join sweet har­mo­ny;
That through Heav’n’s all spa­cious round,
Thy praise, O God, may ev­er sound!