Scripture Verse

Lord, You have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Psalm 90:1

Introduction

Introduction

portrait
William Croft (1678–1727)

Words: Is­aac Watts, The Psalms of Da­vid 1719. Man frail and God eter­nal.

This hymn was played for Am­er­ican Pre­si­dent Frank­lin Roo­se­velt at the re­quest of Brit­ish lead­er Win­ston Church­ill, when the two met in 1941 on board the HMS Prince of Wales to cre­ate the At­lan­tic Char­ter. It was al­so sung at Church­ill’s 1965 fun­er­al in St. Paul’s Ca­thed­ral, Lon­don.

Music: St. Anne Will­iam Croft, 1708 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

portrait
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

Lyrics

Our God, our help in ag­es past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shel­ter from the stor­my blast,
And our eter­nal home.

Under the sha­dow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt se­cure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our de­fense is sure.

Before the hills in or­der stood,
Or earth re­ceived her frame,
From ev­er­last­ing Thou art God,
To end­less years the same.

Thy Word com­mands our flesh to dust,
Return, ye sons of men:
All na­tions rose from earth at first,
And turn to earth again.

A thou­sand ag­es in Thy sight
Are like an ev­en­ing gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the ris­ing sun.

The bu­sy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their lives and cares,
Are car­ried down­wards by the flood,
And lost in fol­low­ing years.

Time, like an ev­er roll­ing stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, for­got­ten, as a dream
Dies at the op­en­ing day.

Like flow­ery fields the na­tions stand
Pleased with the morn­ing light;
The flow­ers be­neath the mow­er’s hand
Lie wi­ther­ing ere ‘tis night.

Our God, our help in ag­es past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while trou­bles last,
And our eter­nal home.