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1 Before Jehovah's aweful throne,
ye nations, bow with sacred joy;
know that the Lord is God alone:
he can create, and he destroy.
2 His sovereign power, without our aid,
made us of clay, and formed us then;
and, when like wandering sheep we strayed,
he brought us to his fold again.
3 We'll crowd thy gates with thankful songs,
high as the heavens our voices raise;
and earth, with her ten thousand tongues,
shall fill thy courts with sounding praise.
4 Wide as the world is thy command,
vast as eternity thy love;
firm as a rock thy truth must stand,
when rolling years shall cease to move.
Source: Ancient and Modern: hymns and songs for refreshing worship #597
First Line: | Before Jehovah's awful throne |
Title: | Exhortation to Worship |
Author: | Isaac Watts (1719) |
Meter: | 8.8.8.8 |
Language: | English |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
Sing to the Lord with joyful voice. I. Watts. (Ps. 100) 1st published in his Psalms of David, & c., 1719, p. 256, in 6 st. of 4 l. In this form its use in modern collections is limited; that which has attained to the greatest popularity being "Before Jehovah's awful throne." This arrangement is by J. Wesley, and was 1st published in his Psalms & Hymns at Charlestown, U.S.A., in 1736-7, p. 5, and repeated in J. & C. Wesley's Psalms & Hymns, 1741, p. 74; the Wesleyan Hymn Book in 1797, as the first of the "Additional Hymns," and the revised ed. of 1875. Modern collections of the Church of England have received it through Madan's Psalms & Hymns, 1760, Toplady's Psalms & Hymns, 1776, and others of the last century. It consists of Watts, as follows, with alterations thus: st. i., Watts' st. ii altered, by J. Wesley, to: "Before Jehovah's awful throne, Ye nations bow with sacred joy."
—Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)