Scripture Verse

Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into Thy lips: therefore God hath blessed Thee forever. Psalm 45:2

Introduction

portrait
Henry Carey (1687–1743)

Words: Charles Wes­ley, Col­lect­ion of Psalms and Hymns 1743.

Music: Car­ey’s Sur­rey Hen­ry Car­ey, 1723. Har­mo­ny from The Eng­lish Hym­nal (Lon­don: Ox­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 1906), num­ber 491 (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)

Lyrics

My heart is full of Christ, and longs
Its glo­ri­ous mat­ter to de­clare!
Of Him I make my lof­ti­er song,
I can­not from His praise for­bear;
My rea­dy tongue makes haste to sing
The glo­ries of my heav’n­ly King.

Fairer than all the earth-born race,
Perfect in come­li­ness Thou art;
Replenished are Thy lips with grace,
And full of love Thy ten­der heart:
God ev­er blest! we bow the knee,
And own all full­ness dwells in Thee.

Gird on Thy thigh the Spir­it’s sword,
And take to Thee Thy power di­vine;
Stir up Thy strength, al­migh­ty Lord,
All pow­er and ma­jes­ty are Thine:
Assert Thy wor­ship and re­nown;
O all re­deem­ing God, come down!

Come, and main­tain Thy righte­ous cause,
And let Thy glo­ri­ous toil suc­ceed;
Dispread the vic­to­ry of Thy cross,
Ride on, and pros­per in Thy deed;
Through earth tri­um­phant­ly ride on,
And reign in ev­ery heart alone.