God of mercy, God of grace

Author: Henry Francis Lyte

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 >

God of mercy, God of grace, Shew the brightness of Thy face. H. F. Lyte. [Psalm lxvii.] First published in his Spirit of the Psalms, 1834, in 3 stanzas of 6 lines as his 2nd version of Psalm lxvii., and again in later editions of the same. It is in most extensive use in all English-speaking countries, and usually the original text is given unaltered as in Thring's Collection, 1882.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)