Scripture Verse

May God arise, may His enemies be scattered; may His foes flee before Him. Psalm 68:1

Introduction

portrait
Charles H. Gabriel (1856–1932)

Words: Charles Wes­ley (1707–1788). Ap­peared in The Un­pub­lished Po­et­ry of Charles Wes­ley, by S. T. Kim­brough, Jr., & Ol­iv­er A. Beck­er­leg­ge (Nash­ville, Ten­nes­see: Ab­ing­don Press, 1992), pag­es 312–13.

Music: Am­eri­cus Charles H. Ga­bri­el, 1901 (🔊 pdf nwc) (re­peats last line of each verse).

Alternate Tune:

If you know where to get a bet­ter pho­to of Ga­bri­el (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

Let God arise, and let His foes
Who fierce­ly Him and His op­pose
Be scat­tered far away!
Thou, Je­sus, on our side ap­pear
And bring Thy great sal­va­tion near
And an­swer, while we pray.

Rebuke their proud ty­ran­nic boast,
Who vaunt­ing against Is­ra­el’s host
Do Is­ra­el’s God de­fy;
Thee in Thy peo­ple they re­proach,
And touch­ing us, pre­sume to touch
The ap­ple of Thine eye.

Who per­se­cute the sons of light,
And kick against the pricks, and fight
Against their Mak­er-God,
Bow down be­neath Thine an­ger’s weight,
Convince them of their lost es­tate,
And show them to Thy blood.

No far­ther let their rage pro­ceed,
Arise, and bruise the ser­pent’s head,
Who bruis­es now Thy heel;
Thou know’st Thy fee­ble fol­low­ers’ pain,
For Thou dost all our griefs sus­tain,
And all our sor­rows feel.