Scripture Verse

God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so. Genesis 1:9

Introduction

Words: Un­known au­thor, 6th Cen­tu­ry (Im­men­se cae­li Con­di­tor). Trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by Ga­bri­el Gil­lett in The Eng­lish Hym­nal (Lon­don: Ox­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 1906).

Music: Ills­ley John Bi­shop, A Set of New Psalm Tunes 1711 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pic­ture of Gil­lett or Bi­shop (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

O bound­less Wis­dom, God most high,
O Mak­er of the earth and sky,
Who bid’st the part­ed wa­ters flow
In Hea­ven above, on earth be­low.

The streams on earth, the clouds in hea­ven,
By Thee their or­dered bounds were given,
Lest ’neath the un­tem­pered fires of day
The parch­èd soil should waste away.

E’en so on us who seek Thy face
Pour forth the wa­ters of Thy grace;
Renew the fount of life with­in,
And quench the wast­ing fires of sin.

Let faith dis­cern the eter­nal Light
Beyond the dark­ness of the night,
And through the mists of false­hood see
The path of truth re­vealed by Thee.

O Fa­ther, that we ask be done,
Through Je­sus Christ, Thine on­ly Son;
Who, with the Ho­ly Ghost and Thee,
Doth live and reign eter­nal­ly.