Scripture Verse

O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon His name: make known His deeds among the people. Psalm 105:1

Introduction

portrait
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

Words: Is­aac Watts, The Psalms of Da­vid 1719. God’s con­duct of Is­ra­el and the plagues of Egypt.

Music: Al­i­da ear­ly Am­er­ican tune (🔊 pdf nwc).

Lyrics

Give thanks to God, in­voke His name,
And tell the world His grace;
Sound thro’ the earth His deeds of fame,
That all may seek His face.
His cov­e­nant, which He kept in mind
For nu­mer­ous ag­es past,
To nu­mer­ous ages yet be­hind
In eq­ual force shall last.

He swore to Ab­r­aham and his seed,
And made the bless­ing sure;
Gentiles the an­cient pro­mise read,
And find His truth en­dure.
Thy seed shall make all na­tions blest,
Said the al­migh­ty voice,
And Ca­naan’s land shall be their rest,
The type of heav’n­ly joys.

How large the grant! How rich the grace,
To give them Ca­naan’s land,
When they were stran­gers in the place,
A lit­tle fee­ble band!
Like pil­grims thro’ the coun­tries round
Securely they re­moved;
And haugh­ty kings that on them frowned
Severely He re­proved.

Touch Mine anoint­ed, and My arm
Shall soon re­venge the wrong:
The man that does My pro­phets harm,
Shall know their God is strong.

Then let the world for­bear its rage,
Nor put the church in fear;
Israel must live through ev­ery age,
And be th’Al­migh­ty’s care.

When Pha­raoh dared to vex the saints,
And thus pro­voked their God,
Moses was sent at their com­plaints,
Armed with his dread­ful rod.
He called for dark­ness; dar­kness came
Like an o’erw­helm­ing flood;
He turned each lake and ev­ery stream
To lakes and streams of blood.

He gave the sign, and nois­me flies
Thro’ the whole coun­try spread;
And frogs in croak­ing ar­mies rise
About the mon­arch’s bed.
Through fields, and towns, and pa­laces,
The ten­fold ven­geance flew;
Locusts in swarms de­voured their trees,
And hail their cat­tle slew.

Then by an ang­el’s mid­night stroke
The flow­er of Egypt died;
The strength of ev­ery house was broke,
Their glo­ry and their pride.
Now let the world for­bear its rage,
Nor put the church in fear;
Israel must live through ev­ery age,
And be th’Al­migh­ty’s care.

Thus were the tribes from bond­age brought,
And left the hat­ed ground;
Each some Egyp­tian spoils had got,
And not one fe­eble found.
The Lord Him­self chose out their way,
And marked their jour­neys right;
Gave them a lead­ing cloud by day,
A fie­ry guide by night.

They thirst, and wa­ters from the rock
In rich abun­dance flow;
And fol­low­ing still the course they took,
Ran all the des­ert through.
O won­drous stream! O bless­èd type
Of ever flow­ing grace!
So Christ, our Rock, main­tains our life
Through all this wil­der­ness.

Thus guard­ed by th’al­migh­ty hand,
The chos­en tribes pos­sessed
Canaan, the rich, the pro­mised land,
And there en­joyed their rest.
Then let the world for­bear its rage,
The church re­nounce her fear;
Israel must live through ev­ery age,
And be th’Al­migh­ty’s care.