Scripture Verse

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. Psalm 80:1

Introduction

Words: Pa­ra­phrase of Psalm 80. Au­thor un­known.

Music: Lan­gran James Lan­gran, 1861. First pub­lished in a leaf­let, then in Psalms and Hymns Adapt­ed to the Ser­vic­es of the Church of Eng­land, by John Fos­ter, 1863 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Lyrics

O Thou great shep­herd of Thy chos­en race,
Who lead­est like a flock Thine Is­ra­el dear,
From out the che­ru­bim re­veal Thy face,
Before our host now let Thy might ap­pear.
Come Thou, O God, to save us and re­store;
We shall be saved
When shines Thy face once more.

How long, O Lord, wilt Thou dis­dain our pray­er?
For Thou hast fed us with the bread of tears,
And bit­ter sor­row Thou hast made us share;
The na­tions round us mock with scorn­ful jeers.
O God of hosts, Thy people now re­store;
We shall be saved
When shines Thy face once more.

A vine Thou brought­est forth from Egypt’s land;
The na­tions were thrust out to give it room;
It took deep root, it spread on ev­ery hand,
The hills were co­vered with its shade and bloom;
Its boughs were like great ce­dars spread­ing wide;
They reached the sea, its roots the ri­ver­side.

Why hast Thou brok­en down its circ­ling wall
That they may pluck who pass along the way?
Wild beasts from out the wood de­stroy it all
And feed upon Thy vine by night and day.
O God of hosts, we pray Thee now re­store;
We shall be saved
When shines Thy face once more.

Look down, be­hold and vi­sit this Thy vine
Which Thou hast plant­ed
With Thine own right hand,
The branch Thou hast made
Strong and owned as Thine,
For it is burned with fire, no more to stand;
Thy people per­ish in Thine an­ger sore
Because Thy face
Now shines on them no more.

O let Thy hand Thy chos­en one sus­tain,
The son of man Thou mad­est strong to be;
So we shall faith­ful to Thy cause re­main;
Revive Thou us, and we will call on Thee.
Jehovah, God of hosts, again re­store:
We shall be saved
When shines Thy face once more.