|
Awful Majesty/Sing to the Lord Ye Heav'nly Hosts
Shape-Note Folk Hymn; lyrics by Watts (1697); Tune: Tradtional, attributed to Freeman Lewis in Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony, by Ananias Davisson, 1820
ARTIST: William Walker; 1835 Collected by Brown
CATEGORY: Traditional Shape-Note Folk Hymn;
DATE: 1697 Watts; 1813 McFarland;
RECORDING INFO: Awful Majesty
OTHER NAMES: "Sing to the Lord Ye Heav'nly Hosts"
SOURCES: The Beauties of Harmony, by Freeman Lewis, 1813; Suppliment to Kentucky Harmony; Joseph Funk's Hamonia Sacra
NOTES: "Awful Majesty," or "Sing to the Lord Ye Heav'nly Hosts" is attributed to McFarland in The Beauties of Harmony, by Freeman Lewis, 1813; attributed to Freeman Lewis in Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony, by Ananias Davisson, 1820.
It appears in Isaac Watts' (1674-1748) Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707-9, Book II, number 62, with the note “Made in a great sudden storm of thunder, August 20, 1697.”
AWFUL MAJESTY/SING TO THE LORD, YE HEAV’NLY HOSTS- Watts/McFarland
Sing to the Lord, ye heav’nly hosts,
And thou, O earth, adore;
Let death and hell through all their coasts
Stand trembling at His power.
His sounding chariot shakes the sky,
He makes the clouds His throne;
There all His stores of lightning lie,
Till vengeance darts them down.
His nostrils breathe out fiery streams
And from His awful tongue
A sovereign voice divides the flames,
And thunder roars along.
Think, O my soul! the dreadful day,
When this incensèd God
Shall rend the sky, and burn the sea,
And fling His wrath abroad.
What shall the wretch, the sinner do?
He once defied the Lord;
But he shall dread the Thund’rer now,
And sink beneath His Word.
Tempests of angry fire shall roll
To blast the rebel worm,
And beat upon his naked soul
In one eternal storm.
|