Scripture Verse

Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Psalm 103:2

Introduction

portrait
Arthur Pierson (1837–1911)

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Words: Ar­thur T. Pier­son, 1873. Ap­peared in Hymns and Songs of Praise for Public and So­cial Wor­ship, ed­it­ed by Ros­well D. Hitch­cock, Zach­ary Ed­dy & Phi­lip Schaff (New York & Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois: A. S. [Al­fred Smith] Barnes, 1874), num­ber 1151.

Music: Nun dan­ket at­trib­ut­ed to Jo­hann Crü­ger, 1647. Har­mo­ny by Fe­lix Men­dels­sohn, 1840 (🔊 pdf nwc). Though the tune is found in Crü­ger’s Prax­is Pi­eta­tis Me­li­ca, and is at­trib­ut­ed to Crü­ger, Ca­the­rine Wink­worth be­lieved Ma­rtin Rink­art wrote the tune in 1644.

portrait
Johann Crüger
(1598–1662)

Lyrics

To Thee, O God, we raise
Our voice, in chor­al sing­ing;
We come, with pray­er and praise,
Our hearts’ obla­tions bring­ing;
Thou art our fa­thers’ God,
And ever shalt be ours:
Our lips and lives shall laud
Thy name, with all our pow­ers.

Thy good­ness, like the dew
On Her­mon’s hill des­cend­ing,
Is ev­ery morn­ing new,
And tells of love un­end­ing.
We bless Thy ten­der care
That led our way­ward feet,
Past ev­ery fa­tal snare,
To streams and pas­tures sweet.

We bless Thy Son, who bore
The cross, for sin­ners dy­ing;
Thy Spir­it we adore,
The pre­cious blood ap­ply­ing.
Let work and wor­ship send
Their in­cense un­to Thee,
Till song and ser­vice blend,
Beside the crys­tal sea.