Seeking Direction in the Choice of a Pastor

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Shepherd of Israel, bend thine ear

Author: Philip Doddridge
Published in 36 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Shepherd of Israel, bend thine ear,
Thy servants' groans indulgent hear;
Perplex'd, distress'd, to thee we cry,
And seek the guidance of thine eye.

2 Thy comprehensive view surveys
Our wandering paths, our trackless ways;
Send forth, O Lord, thy truth and light,
To guide our doubtful footsteps right.

3 With longing eyes, behold, we wait
In suppliant crowds at mercy's gate:
Our drooping hearts, O God, sustain:
Shall Israel seek thy face in vain?

4 O Lord, in ways of peace return,
Nor let thy flock neglected mourn;
May our blest eyes a shepherd see,
Dear to our souls, and dear to thee.

5 Fed by his care, our tongues shall raise
A cheerful tribute to thy praise;
Our children learn the grateful song,
And theirs the cheerful notes prolong.

Source: Hymns, Selected and Original: for public and private worship (1st ed.) #570

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Author: Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Nort… Go to person page >

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First Line:	Shepherd of Israel, bend thine ear
Title:	Seeking Direction in the Choice of a Pastor
Author:	Philip Doddridge
Meter:	8.8.8.8
Language:	English
Copyright:	Public Domain

Ezra 8:21
(hymns)

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Notes

Shepherd of Israel, bend Thine ear. P. Doddridge. [During a Ministerial Vacancy.] In the D. manuscript this is No. 63, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines, and is headed, "Of seeking a right way from God, from Ezra viii. 21. At a meeting of ministers at Bedworth, during their long vacancy;" and is dated "April 10, 1735." It was published by Job Orton in his posthumous edition of Doddridge's Hymns, &c, 1755, No. 370, in a slightly altered form; and the same text was repeated in J. D. Humphreys's edition of the same, 1839. It is usually given in modern hymnbooks in a slightly altered form from that of 1755. In the Songs for the Sanctuary, N. Y., 1865, st. ii.-iv. are given as "O Lord, Thy pitying eye surveys."

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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