Evangelical Lutheran hymnal ‎#147

147. O God! look down from heav'n and see

1 O God! look down from heav'n and see
A sight that well may move Thee!
Thy saints, how few! How wretchedly
Forsaken we who love Thee!
Thy Word no more shall have its right:
And faith itself is vanished quite
From all this generation.

2 Fictions the teach with cunning art,
And lies of man's invention;
Not 'stablished in God's Word, their heart
Is full of strange dissension;
One chooses this, another that,
And while divisions they create,
They can't of love union.

3 May God root out all heresy
And of false teachers rid us,
Who proudly say: "And who is he
That shall our speech forbid us?
We have the might and right alone,
And what we say must stand; we own
None as our lord and master."

4 Wherefore, saith God, I will arise!
My poor they are oppressing;
I hear their crying and their sighs,
Their wrongs shall have redressing;
My Word, endued with saving might,
Shall suddenly the wicked smite,
And be my poor ones' comfort.

5 As silver sev'n times furnace-tried,
Is found for it the purer,
So ditch the Word, whate're betide,
But prove itself the surer;
The cross reveals its worth aright,
'Tis then we see its strength and light
Shine far in earth's dar places.

6 O God, keep Thou it pure and free
From this vile generation,
And let us too be kept by Thee
From their abomination;
The wicked walk about in ease,
When loose, ungodly men like these
Are in the land exalted.

Text Information

• First Line: O God! look down from heav'n and see
• Author: Dr. Martin Luther (1523)
• Translator: Wm. Reynolds (1854)
• Translator: R. Massie (1854)
• Translator: E. Cronenwett (1854)
• Meter: No. 20
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 1908
• Topic: The Church Year: Reformation
• Notes: From the German text: Ach Gott, vom Himmel, sich darein

Tune Information

• Name: MONMOUTH
• Composer (attributed to): Dr. Martin Luther (1529)
• Meter: No. 20
• Key: A Major