O Worship the King
Robert Grant
O worship the King, All glorious above,
And gratefully sing His power and His love:
Our Shield and Defender, The Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor, And girded with praise.
O tell of His might, And sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, Whose canopy space.
His chariots of wrath, The deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path On the wings of the storm.
Thy bountiful care, What tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air; It shines in the light.
It streams from the hills; It descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills In the dew and the rain.F
rail children of dust, And feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, Nor find Thee to fail.
Thy mercies how tender! How firm to the end!
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend!
Charles Grant was the director of the East India Company and a prominent British statesman. He was also a devout Christian who used his position in India to encourage missions there. He had a son, Robert, who also grew up to be as devout as his father. In the early 1840's Robert studied Psalm 104 and wrote this well known hymn based on those verses. When he was 50 he returned to the land of his childhood, India and became the Governor of Bombay
*Hymn history taken from Then Sings My Soul by Robert J. Morgan.
