Our Nation, God, Its Heart to Thee Upraiseth

Thy church, O God, her heart to thee upraiseth

Author: Robert Seymour Bridges
Tune: DONNE SECOURS
Published in 5 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1. Our nation, God, its heart to Thee upraiseth,
O Lord, the nation bows before Thy face:
With high thanksgiving, Thee Thy glad church praiseth,
Our strength Thy Spir’t, our trust and hope Thy grace.

2. Unto great honor, glory undeservèd,
Hast Thou exalted us, and drawn Thee nigh:
Nor, from Thy judgments, when our feet had swervèd,
Didst Thou forsake, nor leave us, Lord most high.

3. In Thee our fathers trusted, and were savèd,
In Thee destroyèd thrones of tyrants proud:
From ancient bondage freed the poor enslavèd;
To sow Thy truth poured out their saintly blood.

4. Us now, we pray, O God, in anger scorn not,
Nor to vainglorying leave, nor brutish sense
In time of trouble Thy face from us turn not,
Who art our rock, our stately sure defense.

5. Unto our minds give freedom and uprightness;
Let strengthened courage lead o’er land and wave,
To our souls’ armor grant celestial brightness,
Joy to our hearts, and faith beyond the grave.

6. Our plenteous nation still in power extending,
Increase our joy, uphold us by Thy Word:
Beauty and wisdom all our ways attending,
Good will to man and peace through Christ our Lord.

Author: Robert Seymour Bridges

Robert S. Bridges (b. Walmer, Kent, England, 1844; d. Boar's Hill, Abingdon, Berkshire, England, 1930) In a modern listing of important poets Bridges' name is often omitted, but in his generation he was consid­ered a great poet and fine scholar. He studied medicine and practiced as a physician until 1881, when he moved to the village of Yattendon. He had already written some poetry, but after 1881 his literary career became a full-time occupation, and in 1913 he was awarded the position of poet laureate in England. Bridges published The Yattendon Hymnal (1899), a collection of one hundred hymns (forty-four written or translated by him with settings mainly from the Genevan psalter, arranged for unaccompanied singing. In addition to volumes… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: Thy church, O God, her heart to thee upraiseth
Title: Our Nation, God, Its Heart to Thee Upraiseth
Author: Robert Seymour Bridges
Meter: 11.10.11.10
Source: Yattendon Hymnal, by Robert S. Bridges (Oxford, England: 1899), based on F. R. Tailour, 1615, alt.
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Notes

The King, O God, his heart to Thee upraiseth. [National Thanksgiving.] A fine hymn in the Yattendon Hymnal, 1899, No. 74, with the note at p. 21: "Jubilee Hymn, 1897, by B. B. Adapted from Ps. xxi. in Robert Tailour's ‘Fifti Select Psalms,' set in five parts, 1615." The book of 1615 (Sacred Hymns, Consisting of Fifti, &c.; B. M. copy is K. 2. h. 14) has a version of Ps. xxi., but the Yattendon Hymnal does not borrow a single line from it, and does not even keep the metre. The text of 1899 is repeated in The English Hymnal, 1906, No. 564. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Tune

DONNE SECOURS

GENEVAN 12 first appeared in the 1551 Genevan Psalter and has thus been attributed to Louis Bourgeois (PHH 3), music editor for the 1551 edition. It is also known as DONNE SECOURS, the first two words of the French text for Psalm 12. The tune is included in many English-language hymnals because of i…

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The Cyber Hymnal #5237
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The Cyber Hymnal #5237

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