Ad te Domine

Top Text Author Text Info Timeline Page Scans Instances

Thou art (O Lord) my strength and stay

Author: Thomas Sternhold
Published in 2 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Thou art, O Lord, my strength and stay,
the succor which I crave;
Neglect me not, lest I be like
them that are laid in grave.

2 My voice and supplications hear,
when unto thee I cry,
When I lift up my hands unto
thy holy ark most high.

3 Repute me not among those men
in sin that take their fill,
That speak right fair unto their friends,
but think in heart full ill.

4 According to those wicked deeds
which they did most regard,
And after their inventions, Lord,
let them receive reward.

5 Because they never mind the works
of God, he will therefore,
Instead of building of them up,
destroy them evermore.

6 To render thanks unto the Lord,
how great a cause have I,
My voice, my prayer and my complaint
that heard so willingly!

7 He is my shield and fortitude,
my buckler in distress;
My heart rejoiceth greatly, and
my song shall him confess.

8 He is our strength and our defence,
our foes for to resist,
The health and the salvation of
his own elect by Christ.

9 Thy people and thy heritage,
Lord, bless, guide, and preserve;
Increase them, Lord, and rule their hearts,
that they may never swerve.

Source: The Whole Book of Psalms #XXVIII

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: Thomas Sternhold

Thomas Sternhold was Groom of the Robes to Henry VIII and Edward VI. With Hopkins, he produced the first English version of the Psalms before alluded to. He completed fifty-one; Hopkins and others composed the remainder. He died in 1549. Thirty-seven of his psalms were edited and published after his death, by his friend Hopkins. The work is entitled "All such Psalms of David as Thomas Sternhold, late Groome of the King's Majestye's Robes, did in his Lyfetime drawe into Englyshe Metre." Of the version annexed to the Prayer Book, Montgomery says: "The merit of faithful adherence to the original has been claimed for this version, and need not to be denied, but it is the resemblance which the dead bear to the living." Wood, in his "Athe… Go to person page >

^ top