Classic Poem

1.

Great is our God: With warmest zeal
O let his name be blest,
Within the precincts of his Hill,
And City of his rest.

2.

Fair is that Hill; how wondrous fair!
Imperial Sion 's Seat:
There centers, Earth, thy Joy, and there
Its measure owns complete.

3.

Her Walls, while there his lov'd recess
The Northern Heav'n surveys,
With safety God vouchsases to bless,
And pleas'd her scepter sways.

4.

Earth's haughty Monarchs thither came;
They came, they saw, they fled,
Amazement shook their inmost frame,
And undissembled dread.

5.

Such fears they share as Matrons find
That feel th' increasing throe,
Struck by that God, whose shatt'ring wind
Thy Ships, O Tharsis , know.

6.

Lord! what our ears long since have known,
Our eyes delighted trace,
Thy Love in long succession shown
To Salem 's chosen race.

7.

Thrice blest Abode! whose ev'ry tow'r
By Thee supported stands,
That God whose wide-extended pow'r
Th' ethereal Host commands.

8.

When, prostrate at thy hallow'd Shrine,
Thy mercies each surveys,
Transported with the view, we join
In wonder, love, and praise.

9.

Thy Name, through Earth's wide confines spread,
Eternal honours crown;
Each sentence by thy hand decreed
Fair Justice stamps her own.

10.

Let Sion 's Heav'n-devoted Mount
With shouts of triumph ring,
And Judah 's Daughters pleas'd recount
The Judgments of her King.

11.

Go, walk her sacred streets along,
And let her tow'rs be told;
With curious eye her bulwarks strong
And beauteous domes behold.

12.

So shall the fair description last,
Preserv'd in full record,
And tell what glories once have grac'd
The Seat of Jacob 's Lord.

13.

To Him our thankful hearts shall bow,
Nor own a God beside;
To life's last period Him avow
The ever faithful Guide.