🡅 🡇 🞮

THE LORD OF HOSTS, TH’ALMIGHTY LORD

Scripture Verse

In that day the Lord with His hard and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. Isaiah 27:1

Introduction

portrait
Thoro Harris (1874–1955)

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems (Bris­tol, Eng­land: Fe­lix Far­ley, 1749), vol­ume 1, page 11, alt.

Music: Cri­mea Tho­ro Har­ris, cir­ca 1905 (🔊 ).

Alternate Tunes:

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

The Lord of hosts, th’al­migh­ty Lord,
Shall pun­ish in that venge­ful day,
Shall with His Spir­it’s two-edged sword
The pierc­ing, crook­ed ser­pent slay.

Leviathan, that sub­tle fiend,
That soul-in­si­nu­at­ing foe,
Jesus shall make his ma­lice end,
And root out all our sins be­low.

Jesus shall make us free in­deed,
Redeem from all ini­qui­ty,
And crush the hell­ish ser­pent’s head,
And slay the dra­gon in the sea.

The sea is calmed, the trou­bled soul,
In which he did his pas­time take;
The sin­ner now by faith made whole,
Can nev­er more his God for­sake.

Sing to the Church in that glad day,
(The Church is joined to those above,
When all their sins are washed away,
And they are per­fect made in love:

Partakers of the life di­vine,
When grace the full sal­va­tion brings)
Sing ye, a vine­yard of red wine,
A vine­yard for the King of kings!

“I keep it, I th’al­migh­ty Lord,
My Spir­it ev­ery mo­ment pour,
Descends the wa­ter and the Word,
The gra­cious nev­er-ceas­ing show­er.

“I wa­ter it with heav’n­ly dew,
Satan and sin I chase away,
I wa­ter it, and keep it, too,
I watch My vine­yard night and day.

“Fury is not in Me; to all
To all My mer­cies free­ly move:
Who would re­sist My gra­cious call,
Or spurn the bow­els of My love?

“Who against Me would mad­ly dare
To set the thorns and bri­ers in fight?
Through all I would My pas­sage tear,
And tram­ple on their fee­ble might.

“The soul that will not taste My love
Shall per­ish by My right­eous ire,
My venge­ful in­dig­na­tion prove,
And feel Me a con­sum­ing fire.

“But ra­ther let Him free­ly take
A pow­er from Me to turn and live;
Peace with his God he then shall make,
And Christ in­to his heart re­ceive.

“My Son from all, who come to Him,
Shall eve­ry spot of sin re­move,
From all ini­qui­ty re­deem,
And root and ’stab­lish them in love.

“Grafted in Him, they all shall share
The life, and fat­ness of the root,
And ev­ery ho­ly tem­per bear,
And fill the world with gold­en fruit.

The trees of right­eous­ness shall rise,
Watered each mo­ment from above,
And bear the fruits of pa­ra­dise,
The glo­ri­ous fruits of per­fect love.