Scripture Verse

Let the people praise Thee, O God. Psalm 67:3

Introduction

portrait
William Croft (1678–1727)

Words: Ambrose M. Schmidt, in The Sun­day School Hym­nal (Phi­la­del­phia, Penn­syl­van­ia: Hei­del­berg Press, 1900).

Music: Ha­no­ver, at­trib­ut­ed to Will­iam Croft, in The Sup­ple­ment to the New Ver­sion of Psalms, by Na­hum Tate & Ni­cho­las Bra­dy, 6th edi­tion, 1708 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Lyrics

We praise Thee, O God,
Our Lord and our king,
Accept Thou the praise
We grate­ful­ly bring;
Thanksgiving and wor­ship
We of­fer to Thee,
Thou rul­er of nations,
In whom we are free.

We praise Thee, O God,
For Thy guid­ing hand,
In lead­ing Thy church
To free­dom’s fair land;
Through sore per­se­cu­tion
Our fat­hers here came,
Where free and un­fet­tered
They wor­shiped Thy name.

We praise Thee, O God,
For years of in­crease,
For faith un­as­sailed,
Prosperity, peace;
United we of­fer
Our an­them of praise,
To Thee, our sup­port­er,
Our An­cient of Days.

We pray Thee, O Christ,
Our Sav­ior and friend,
From er­ror and strife
Thy Zi­on defend;
Breathe on us, we pray Thee,
O Spir­it of love,
And fit us for un­ion
With Thy Church above.