The Choir and The Oratory :: :: University of Virginia Library

Great is the Lord Most High!
His power and majesty,
Most worthy theme of our exalted strains,
In His own city shine
With lustre all divine,
Upon the holy mountain where He reigns.

How beautiful the site!
Sion, the Earth's delight,
Whose northern slopes the royal city bear:
Metropolis divine
Of Judah's sacred line;
Its fortress, God; its strength, Jehovah's care.

Confederate kings had met;
Their martial ranks were set;
They came; they gazed: we saw their hosts appear:
When sudden panic spread
Through all their ranks:—they fled:
Throes like a woman's shook their frames with fear.

Or, as a stormy gale
Makes boldest spirits quail,
When the large ships lie shattered on the coasts;
Then what our fathers told,
We did ourselves behold
In this the city of the Lord of Hosts.

Seat of our God, He will
Guard His own city still.
Within Thy temple, in Thy love we trust.
According to Thy Name,
Thy deeds to Earth proclaim
Thy glory: faithful are Thy ways, and just.

Sion shall raise her voice,
And Judah's hills rejoice,
Because o'er earth extends Thy righteous sway.
Go, compass Sion's mount;
Her towers and bulwarks count;
Her stately palaces with care survey:

Note every structure well,
That sires their sons may tell,
How fair and strong the sacred city rose.
For He whom we adore,
Will be for evermore
Our God, and guide us to our journey's close.