Scripture Verse

Thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob. Psalm 19:14

Introduction

Words: Ben­ja­min Fran­cis, in Rip­pon’s Se­lect­ions, 1787.

Music: El­ez Ben­ja­min F. Al­le­man, in Augs­burg Songs (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Lu­ther­an Pub­li­ca­tion So­cie­ty, 1885), num­ber 2 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Al­le­man (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Benjamin Francis (1734–1799)

Lyrics

My gra­cious Re­deem­er I love,
His prais­es aloud I’ll pro­claim,
And join with the ar­mies above,
To shout His ado­ra­ble name.
To gaze on His glo­ries di­vine
Shall be my eter­nal em­ploy;
To see them in­ces­sant­ly shine,
My bound­less, in­ef­fa­ble joy.

He free­ly re­deemed with His blood,
My soul from the con­fines of hell,
To live on the smiles of my God,
And in His sweet pre­sence to dwell,
To shine with the an­gels of light,
With saints and with se­raphs to sing,
To view, with eter­nal de­light,
My Je­sus, my Sav­ior, my king.

In Me­schech, as yet, I re­side,
A dark­some and rest­less abode!
Molested with foes on each side,
And long­ing to dwell with my God.
O, when shall my spi­rit ex­change
This cell of cor­rup­ti­ble clay,
For man­sions ce­les­ti­al, and range
Thro’ realms of in­ef­fa­ble day.

My glo­ri­ous Re­deem­er, I long
To see Thee des­cend on the cloud,
Amidst the bright num­ber­less throng,
And mix with the tri­umph­ing crowd;
O, when wilt Thou bid me as­cend,
To join in Thy prais­es above,
To gaze on Thee, world with­out end,
And feast on Thy rav­ish­ing love.

Nor sor­row, nor sick­ness, nor pain,
Nor sin, nor temp­tation, nor fear,
Shall ev­er mo­lest me again,
Perfection of glo­ry reigns there.
This soul and this bo­dy shall shine
In robes of sal­va­tion and praise,
And ban­quet on plea­sures divine,
Where God His full beau­ty dis­plays.

Ye pa­lac­es, scep­ters and crowns,
Your pride with dis­dain I sur­vey;
Your pomps are but sha­dows and sounds,
And pass in a mo­ment away;
The crown that my Sav­ior be­stows,
Yon per­ma­nent sun shall out­shine;
My joy ev­er­last­ing­ly flows,
My God, my Re­deem­er, is mine.