Scripture Verse

O Lord, how great are Thy works! and Thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this. When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever. But Thou, Lord, art most high for evermore. Psalm 92:5–8

Introduction

portrait
William Gardiner
(1770–1853)
British Museum
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Words: James Mer­rick (1720–1769).

Music: Ger­ma­ny Sac­red Me­lo­dies, by Will­iam Gar­di­ner, 1815 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Lyrics

With what de­light, great God, I trace
Each act of Thy stu­pen­dous grace!
Great are the works Thy hand has wrought,
And deep be­yond all search Thy thought.

Thy acts the minds of brut­ish mold
With un­re­gard­ing eye be­hold,
And, stran­gers to Thy wise d­esign,
In err­ing cen­sure mad­ly join:

Nor know, that, when the im­pi­ous band,
Fresh as the flow­er, con­spi­cu­ous stand,
Mature for death their heads they rear,
And swift de­struct­ion waits them near.

But Thou above the star­ry plain
In end­less ma­jes­ty shalt reign;
And down­ward from th’e­ther­eal height
O’er sub­ject worlds ex­tend Thy might.