Scripture Verse

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Psalm 122:1–2

Introduction

Words: Prob­ab­ly by Tho­mas Cot­ter­ill, 1810.

Music: Ma­no­ah Gi­ao­chi­no A. Ros­si­ni (1792–1868). Ar­ranged in Col­lect­ion of Church Mu­sic, by Hen­ry W. Great­or­ex, 1851 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

portrait
Gioachino A. Rossini
(1792–1868)

Origin of the Hymn

Appeared in Cot­ter­ill’s [Se­lect­ion] 1810, No. 98, in 4 st. of 4 l, and en­ti­tled For the bless­ing of God on Pub­lic Wor­ship. It is based on J. New­ton’s O Lord, our lan­guid souls in­spire, st. ii. be­ing spe­cial­ly from New­ton. The cen­to was most prob­ab­ly ar­ranged and re­writ­ten by Cot­ter­ill. Its use in G. Brit. is some­what lim­it­ed, but in Am­eri­ca it is ex­ten­sive, and is giv­en in the col­lect­ions of va­ri­ous de­nom­in­ations.

Julian, pp. 28–29

Lyrics

Again our earth­ly cares we leave
And to Thy courts re­pair;
Again with joy­ful feet we come,
To meet our Sav­ior there.

Great Shep­herd of Thy peo­ple, hear;
Thy pre­sence now dis­play:
We bow with­in Thy house of pray­er;
Oh! give us hearts to pray.

The clouds which veil Thee from our sight,
In pity, Lord! re­move:
Dispose our hearts to hear aright
The mes­sage of Thy love

Impressed with ho­ly fear and love,
We kneel be­fore Thy face:
Oh! may the child­ren of Thy pow­er
Be child­ren of Thy grace!