O Lord my God! how great art Thou! With honor and with glory crowned; Light’s dazzling splendors veil Thy brow, And gird the universe around. Spirits and angels Thou hast made; Thy ministers a flaming fire; By Thee were earth’s foundations laid; At Thy rebuke the floods retire. Thine are the fountains of the deep; By Thee their waters swell or fail; Up to the mountain’s summit creep, Or shrink beneath the lowly vale. Thy fingers mark their utmost found; That bound the waters may not pass; Their moisture swells the teeming ground, And paints the valleys o’er with grass. The waving harvest, Lord, is Thine; The vineyard, and the olive’s juice; Corn, wine, and oil, by Thee combine, Life, gladness, beauty, produce. The moon for seasons Thou hast made, The sun for change of day and night; Of darkness Thine the deepest shade, And Thine the day’s meridian light. O Lord, Thy works are all divine; In wisdom hast Thou made them all; Earth’s teeming multitudes are Thine; Thine—peopled ocean’s great and small. All these on Thee for life depend; Thy Spirit speaks, and they are born; They gather what Thy bounties send; Thy hand of plenty fills the horn. Thy face is hidden—they turn pale, With terror quake, with anguish burn; Their breath Thou givest to the gale; They die, and to their dust return. And Thou, my soul, with pure delight, Thy voice to bless thy Maker raise; His praise let morning sing to night, And night to morn repeat His praise. |