Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem.
Isaiah 52:1
Words: Charles Wesley, Psalms and Hymns 1741.
Music: Luton George Burder, 1774 (🔊 pdf nwc).
Awake, Jerusalem, awake!
No longer in thy sins lie down;
The garment of salvation take,
Thy beauty and thy strength put on.
By impious feet no longer trod,
Thy God shall cleanse thy every stain,
O holy city of thy God,
Thou shalt not bear His name in vain.
Shake off the dust that blinds thy sight,
And hides the promise from thine eyes;
Arise, and struggle into light,
The great Deliverer calls: Arise!
Shake off the bands of sad despair;
Zion, assert thy liberty;
Look up, thy broken heart prepare,
And God shall set the captive free.
For thus the Lord your God hath said,
Ye all have sold yourselves for naught;
A ransom (not by you) is paid:
Receive your liberty unbought.
“My people have been long oppressed,
No glory thence redounds to Me,
Long have I seen them sore distressed,
Grieved at My people’s misery.
“They groaned beneath the tyrant’s chain,
Sin ruled them with an iron rod;
The suffering abjects howled for pain,
They groaned, but dared not groan to God.
“Th’oppressors with insulting boast
My truth and saving power contemned,
My worship, and My praise was lost,
My name was every day blasphemed.
“For this My jealousy is stirred,
And shall a great deliverance show;
My people shall confess their Lord,
My faithfulness and mercy know.
Surely they all shall know My name,
They all My attributes shall prove:
I Am, what I am called; I Am
Justice, and truth, and power and love.