Immanuel, We Sing Thy Praise (Gerhardt)

Immanuel

we sing Thy praise;

Thou Prince of life! Thou spring of grace!

We wor­ship Thee with one ac­cord

Thou vir­gin’s Son! Thou Lord of lords!

We join with heav’n­ly hosts to be

Employed with those who wor­ship Thee;

Since long it hath been our re­quest

That Thou shouldst come

O wel­come Guest!

How oft­en

since the world was made

Have ma­ny for Thy com­ing prayed!

The fa­thers and the pro­phets were

Desirous that Thou shouldst ap­pear

With ar­dent zeal for Thee did look

That king and shep­herd of Thy flock

That man who so well pleas­èd Thee

Who wor­shiped Thee with psal­te­ry.

O may the Lord from Zi­on come

To break our bands

and take us home!

May we re­lief by Him ob­tain!

That Ja­cob may re­joice again.

Now

Thou art come

as we have prayed

And in a stall and man­ger laid;

The world by Thee is clothed and fed

Thou hast not where to lay Thy head.

Thy dwell­ings are of mean­est kind;

Yet all the heav­ens

they are Thine:

A hu­man breast af­fords Thee food

Tho’ an­gels wor­ship Thee

their God.

The seas

they bound at Thy com­mands

And Thou art decked with swad­dling-bands;

Thou art our God

yet deignst to be

Exposed to want and po­ver­ty.

Thou art the fount of ev­ery bliss

And yet ex­posed to great dis­tress:

All na­tions’ help art Thou alone

Thou seek­est help

but find­est none.

We praise Thee

O Thou ev­er blest!

Our prais­es are to Thee ad­dressed;

If an­gels join to praise Thy name

Sure we are bound to do the same.