Scripture Verse

Arise, O God, judge the earth. Psalm 82:8

Introduction

Words: At­trib­ut­ed to King Alfred (849–899) (O stel­li­fe­ri con­di­tor or­bis). Trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by Mar­tin F. Tup­per, King Alf­red’s Po­ems, 1850, page 18. Re-me­tered by Ro­bert M. Moor­som, Ren­der­ings of Church Hymns, 1901, page 68.

Music: Charn­wood Charles E. Mo­ber­ly (1820–1893) (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know when the mu­sic was writ­ten, or where to get a good pho­to of Mo­ber­ly (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

portrait
Martin F. Tupper
1810–1889
National Portrait Gallery

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Lyrics

O God, our mak­er, throned on high,
The earth is Thine, and Thine the sky,
Th’ador­ing sun obeys Thy will,
And count­less stars Thy laws ful­fill.

The length­en­ing light of sum­mer day,
The win­ter frost, Thy pow­er dis­play,
Nature pro­claims Thy so­ve­reign skill;
Man, and man on­ly, spurns Thy will.

The wick­ed sit on earth’s high seat,
And tread the ho­ly ’neath their feet;
Good goes so crook­ed­ly as­tray,
Bright deeds lie hid­den oft away.

Great God! Who seest from above,
Regard us with Thy pi­ty­ing love,
Perplexed by doubts, with toil and strife,
We ask more light—we long for life.