Scripture Verse

Thine, O Lord is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art exalted as head above all. 1 Chronicles 29:11

Introduction

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John Goss (1800–1880)
National Portrait Gallery

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Words: Ben­ja­min Bed­dome (1717–1795). Pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly in Hymns Adapt­ed to Pub­lic Wor­ship (Lon­don: Bu­rton & Briggs, 1818), num­ber 27, alt. God the Ob­ject of Fear.

Music: Is­ra­el (Goss) John Goss (1800–1880) (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

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

Lyrics

Oh Thou who sits en­throned on high,
So full of aw­ful ma­jes­ty!
From Thee all kin­dreds of the earth
Receive their strength, de­rive their birth.

Thy po­tent arm con­founds Thy foes,
And deals in­suf­fer­able blows;
One look of Thine has pow­er to save,
One word can sink them to the grave.

At Thy re­buke the mount­ains shake,
And hearts more hard are made to quake;
When de­vils strive to break their chain,
Their strug­gles but in­crease their pain.

The ru­ins of Je­ru­sa­lem
Thy ven­geance to the world pro­claim,
While So­dom’s flames Thy fu­ry tell
All more the dread­ful flames of hell.

Then to the world’s re­mot­est ends,
Or where Thy wide do­main ex­tends,
Be Thou both dread­ed and ad­ored,
The so­ver­eign Judge, the migh­ty Lord.