Scripture Verse

O Lord God of truth. Psalm 31:5

Introduction

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Thomas Hughes
1823–1896
National Portrait Gallery

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Words: Tho­mas Hughes, in Lays of the Sanc­tu­ary, 1859.

Music: St. James Ralph Courte­ville, in Se­lect Psalms and Hymns for the Use of the Par­ish Church and Ta­ber­na­cle of St. James’, West­min­ster, 1696 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

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

Lyrics

O God of truth, whose liv­ing Word
Upholds what­e’er hath breath,
Look down on Thy cre­ation, Lord,
Enslaved by sin and death.

Set up Thy stan­dard, Lord, that we,
Who claim a hea­ven­ly birth,
May march with Thee to smite the lies
That vex Thy groan­ing earth.

Ah! would we join that blest ar­ray,
And fol­low in the might
Of Him, the Faith­ful and the True,
In rai­ment clean and white!

We fight for truth, we fight for God,
Poor slaves of lies and sin!
He who would fight for Thee on earth
Must first be true with­in.

Then, God of truth, for whom we long,
Thou who wilt hear our pray­er,
Do Thine own bat­tle in our hearts,
And slay the false­hood there.

Still smite; still burn; till naught is left
But God’s own truth and love;
Then, Lord, as morn­ing dew come down,
Rest on us from above.

Yes, come: then, tried as in the fire,
From ev­ery lie set free,
Thy per­fect truth shall dwell in us,
And we shall live in Thee.