Verse 1
[Begin, my tongue, some heavenly theme,
And speak some boundless thing,
The mighty works, or mightier name
Of our eternal King.
Verse 2
Tell of his wondrous faithfulness,
And sound his power abroad,
Sing the sweet promise of his grace,
And the performing God.
Verse 3
Proclaim “salvation from the Lord
”For wretched dying men;”
His hand has writ the sacred word
With an immortal pen.
Verse 4
Engrav’d as in eternal brass,
The mighty promise shines;
Nor can the powers of darkness rase
Those everlasting lines.]
Verse 5
[He that can dash whole worlds to death
And make them when he please,
He speaks, and that almighty breath
Fulfils his great decrees.
Verse 6
His very word of grace is strong
As that which built the skies,
The voice that rolls the stars along
Speaks all the promises.
Verse 7
He said, “Let the wide heaven be spread,”
And heaven was stretch’d abroad;
“Abrah’m, I’ll be thy God,” he said,
And he was Abrah’m’s God.
Verse 8
O, might I hear thine heavenly tongue
But whisper, “Thou art mine;”
Those gentle words should raise my song
To notes almost divine.
Verse 9
How would my leaping heart rejoice
And think my heaven secure!
I trust the all-creating voice,
And faith desires no more.]
Isaac Watts, “Begin, My Tongue, Some Heavenly Theme”