Almighty God, thy piercing eye

Representative Text

1 Almighty God, thy piercing eye
Strikes through the shades of night,
And our most secret actions lie
All open to thy sight.

2 There's not a sin that we commit,
Nor wicked word we say,
But in thy dreadful book 't is writ
Against the judgment-day.

3 Lord, at thy foot ashamed I lie,
Upward I dare not look:
Pardon my sins before I die,
And blot them from thy book.

4 Remember all the dying pains,
Thou, my Redeemer, felt,
And let thy blood wash out my stains,
And answer for my guilt.

5 Oh, may I now forever fear
To indulge a sinful thought,
Since the great God can see and hear,
And writes down every fault.


Source: The Voice of Praise: a collection of hymns for the use of the Methodist Church #66

Author: Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts was the son of a schoolmaster, and was born in Southampton, July 17, 1674. He is said to have shown remarkable precocity in childhood, beginning the study of Latin, in his fourth year, and writing respectable verses at the age of seven. At the age of sixteen, he went to London to study in the Academy of the Rev. Thomas Rowe, an Independent minister. In 1698, he became assistant minister of the Independent Church, Berry St., London. In 1702, he became pastor. In 1712, he accepted an invitation to visit Sir Thomas Abney, at his residence of Abney Park, and at Sir Thomas' pressing request, made it his home for the remainder of his life. It was a residence most favourable for his health, and for the prosecution of his literary… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Almighty God, thy piercing eye
Author: Isaac Watts (1715)
Meter: 8.6.8.6
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

Almighty God, Thy piercing eye. I. Watts. [Omniscience.] First published in his Divine Songs, 1715, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and entitled, "The All-seeing God," and again in all subsequent editions of the same work. It is given in various collections in Great Britain and America, principally in those for children, and sometimes in an abbreviated form. Original text in the Methodist Sunday School Hymnbook, 1879, No. 298. In one or two American collections it is attributed to Beddome in error.

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Tune

[Almighty God, Thy piercing eye]


DUNDEE (Ravenscroft)

DUNDEE first appeared in the 1615 edition of the Scottish Psalter published in Edinburgh by Andro Hart. Called a "French" tune (thus it also goes by the name of FRENCH), DUNDEE was one of that hymnal's twelve "common tunes"; that is, it was not associated with a specific psalm. In the Psalter Hymnal…

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Timeline

Instances

Instances (1 - 82 of 82)
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