Scripture Verse

The Lord had made them joyful…to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God. Ezra 6:22

Introduction

portrait
Percy Dearmer
1867–1936

Words: The words were in­spired by a pray­er said by a dea­con dur­ing the Lord’s Sup­per in the Li­tur­gy of Mal­a­bar, a 5th Cen­tu­ry Nes­tor­i­an rite of the Mar Tho­mas Chris­tians on the south­ern coast of In­dia. Trans­lat­ed from Syr­i­ac to Eng­lish by Charles W. Hum­phreys & Per­cy Dear­mer in The Eng­lish Hym­nal (Lon­don: Ox­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Press, 1906), num­ber 329.

Music: Ach Gott und Herr in As Hym­no­dus Sa­cer, ed­it­ed by Chris­tian Gall (Leip­zig, Ger­ma­ny: 1625). Adapt­ed & har­mo­nized by Jo­hann S. Bach (🔊 pdf nwc).

portrait
Johann S. Bach
1685–1750

Lyrics

Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands
That holy things have taken;
Let ears that now have heard thy songs
To clamor never waken.

Lord, may the tongues which Holy sang
Keep free from all deceiving;
The eyes which saw Thy love be bright
Thy blessèd hope perceiving.

The feet that tread Thy holy courts
From light do Thou not banish;
The bodies by Thy body fed
With Thy new life replenish.