Classic Poem

Psalm XLVII

O Join you hands with loud applause,
Ye people, and the common cause
 Of Christian zeal attend:
In voice and spirit sing and shout,
By hearty melody devout,
 And hymns to God ascend.

For a tremendous God is ours,
Most high, most holy, and the pow'rs,
 The majesty, the might,
And all things glorious, all things great
In empire are subordinate,
 And bow to him of right.

The people from his grace remov'd
Shall in our converse be improv'd,
 And to his altars speed;
The Gentiles thus shall he subdue,
And all the runagates renew
 In Abraham's chosen seed.

For his lov'd tribes he shall select
A better country, and direct
 Our travel to his throne;
And Jacob's glory, Jacob's care,
Which is in gratitude and pray'r,
 Shall reckon to his own.

Christ is gone up, the king of kings,
And joyful acclamation rings,
 As thankless earth he spurns;
The marshall'd cherubs stand in rows,
From inmost heav'n the trumpet blows
 While God from death returns.

In Christ your God the song commence,
Which said “arise let us go hence,”
 By flights of lively praise;
To Christ your king in grateful strain
Raise pealing anthems, and again
 The pealing anthems raise.

By God supream all earth is sway'd,
By him administer'd and made,
 Let us perform our part,
Sing vying for th' immortal prize
In high-wrought verse and heedfull wise,
 Like masters of your art.

The heathen also he controuls,
In whose obnubilated souls
 His image is effac'd;
God sits upon his throne to bless,
His throne by purest holiness
 And boundless mercy plac'd.

Each rebel Jew the church rejoins,
And every prince from Abraham's loins
 Again his fruit shall yield;
For God, whose exaltation soars
O'er heav'n, and whom all earth adores,
 Shall be himself our shield.