Mighty God, While Angels Bless Thee

Representative Text

1 Mighty God, while angels bless you,
may a mortal sing your name?
Lord of men as well as angels,
you are ev'ry creature’s theme.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

2 Lord of ev'ry land and nation,
ancient of eternal days,
sounded through the wide creation
be your just and lawful praise.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

3 For the grandeur of your nature,
grand beyond a seraph’s thought,
for created works of power,
works with skill and kindness wrought.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

4 But your rich, your free redemption,
dark through brightness all along,
thought is poor, and poor expression,
who dare sing that wondrous song?
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

5 Brightness of the Father’s glory,
shall your praise unuttered lie?
Fly, my tongue, such guilty silence,
sing the Lord who came to die.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

6 From the highest throne in glory,
to the cross of deepest woe,
all to ransom guilty captives,
flow my praise, forever flow.
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

Source: Trinity Psalter Hymnal #218

Author: Robert Robinson

Robert Robinson was born at Swaffham, Norfolk, in 1735. In 1749, he was apprenticed to a hairdresser, in Crutched Friars, London. Hearing a discourse preached by Whitefield on "The Wrath to Come," in 1752, he was deeply impressed, and after a period of much disquietude, he gave himself to a religious life. His own peculiar account of this change of life is as follows:--"Robertus Michaelis Marineque Robinson filius. Natus Swaffhami, comitatu Norfolciae, Saturni die Sept. 27, 1735. Renatus Sabbati die, Maii 24, 1752, per predicationem potentem Georgii Whitefield. Et gustatis doloribus renovationis duos annos mensesque septem, absolutionem plenam gratuitamque, per sanguinem pretiosum i secula seculorum. Amen." He soon after began to pr… Go to person page >

Notes

Mighty God, while angels bless Thee . R. Robinson. [Glory of God. Christmas.] Miller, in his Singers and Songs of the Church, 1869, p. 267, says that Robinson in his manuscript Catalogue thus refers to this hymn as "A Christmas Hymn, set to music by Dr. Randall, and, with the notes, engraven on a copperplate half-sheet." The date added by Miller is 1774. The hymn is in J. Middleton's Hymns, 1793, No. 137, in 9 stanzas of 4 lines, with the refrain "Hallelujah, H. H. Amen," and the signature "Robinson." This text differs slightly from that given by Burrage in his Baptist Hymn Writers, &c, 1888, pp. 73, 74, which he regards as the original. (See also the Universalist Hymn Book, Boston, U. S. A., 1792.) Dr. Belcher (p. 133, i.) says the hymn was written by Robinson for Benjamin Williams, sometime deacon of the Baptist Church, Reading, England, when the latter was a boy, and asserts that he had the information from Williams himself. The hymn is widely used, as is also the cento therefrom from "Lord of every land and nation." (See Sturgeon's Our Own Hymn Book, 1866, for full text.)

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Tune

AUTUMN (Barthélemon)

This tune is adapted from Barthélemon's piece Durandarte and Belerma: A Pathetic Scotch Ballad (1797). Some editors describe AUTUMN as "adapted from Psalm xlii in the Genevan Psalter, 1551", referring to the similarity between this tune and FREU DICH SEHR.

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ALLELUIA (Lowe)


KENSINGTON NEW


Timeline

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The Cyber Hymnal #4261
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Instances

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The Cyber Hymnal #4261

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Rejoice in the Lord #348

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Trinity Hymnal (Rev. ed.) #8

Ambassador Hymnal #224

Church Hymnal, Mennonite #34

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Trinity Psalter Hymnal #218

Living Hymns #27

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