Pleasant are Thy courts above. H. F. Lyte. [Ps. lxxxiv.] Published in his Spirit of the Psalms, 1834, in 4 stanzas of 8 1ines and again in later editions. Its use in all English-speaking countries is extensive, and it is usually given in an unaltered form, as in Hymns Ancient & Modern, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge Church Hymns, &c . In the S. P. C. K. Hymns, 1852, No. 162, a portion of this hymn was given in 4 st. of 41., as "Happy they that find a rest."
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
Lyte, Henry Francis, M.A., son of Captain Thomas Lyte, was born at Ednam, near Kelso, June 1, 1793, and educated at Portora (the Royal School of Enniskillen), and at Trinity College, Dublin, of which he was a Scholar, and where he graduated in 1814. During his University course he distinguished himself by gaining the English prize poem on three occasions. At one time he had intended studying Medicine; but this he abandoned for Theology, and took Holy Orders in 1815, his first curacy being in the neighbourhood of Wexford. In 1817, he removed to Marazion, in Cornwall. There, in 1818, he underwent a great spiritual change, which shaped and influenced the whole of his after life, the immediate cause being the illness and death of a brother cler… Go to person page >
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