What are the heavens, O God of heaven

Representative Text

1 What are the heavens, O God of heaven?
Thou art more bright, more high:
What are bright stars, and brighter saints,
To Thy bright majesty?

2 Thou'rt far above the songs of heaven,
Sung by the holy ones;
And dost Thou stoop and bow Thine ear
To a poor sinner's groans?

3 My precious Saviour's guiltless Blood
First washed away my sin,
And Thy Eternal Spirit was
My Advocate within.

4 It could not be that Thou should'st hear
A mortal, sinful worm;
But that my prayers presented are
In a most glorious form.

5 Thou heard'st my prayer for Jesus' sake,
Whom Thou dost hear always:
Lord, hear through that prevailing Name
My voice of joy and praise.

Source: Church Book: for the use of Evangelical Lutheran congregations #104

Author: John Mason

Mason, John. The known facts of his life are scanty. He was the son of a Dissenting Minister, and the grandfather of John Mason, the author of A Treatise on Self-Knowledge. He was educated at Strixton School, Northants, and Clare Hall, Cambridge. After taking his M.A., he became Curate of Isham; and in 1668, Vicar of Stantonbury, Bucks. A little more than five years afterwards he was appointed Rector of Water-Stratford. Here he composed the volume containing The Songs of Praise, his paraphrase of The Song of Solomon, and the Poem on Dives and Lazarus, with which Shepherd's Penitential Cries was afterwards bound up. This volume passed through twenty editions. Besides the Songs of Praise, it contains six Penitential Cries by Mason, and it i… Go to person page >

Text Information

First Line: What are the heavens, O God of heaven
Author: John Mason
Language: English
Copyright: Public Domain

Tune

ST. PETER (Reinagle)

Composed by Alexander R. Reinagle (b. Brighton, Sussex, England, 1799; d. Kidlington, Oxfordshire, England, 1877), ST. PETER was published as a setting for Psalm 118 in Reinagle's Psalm Tunes for the Voice and Pianoforte (c. 1836). The tune first appeared with Newton's text in Hymns Ancient and Mode…

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Church Book #104

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Church Book #104

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