O that Thou wouldst the heavens rend

Verse 1
O that thou would’st the heavens rend!
O that thou would’st this hour come down!
Descend, Almighty God, descend,
And strongly vindicate thine own!

Verse 2
Now let the heathens fear thy name,
Now let the world thy nature know,
Dart into all the melting flame
Of love, and make the mountains flow.

Verse 3
O let thine indignation burn,
The lightning of thy judgments glare,
Th’ aspiring confidence o’erturn
Of all that still thine anger dare.

Verse 4
From heaven reveal thy vengeful ire,
Thy fury let the nations prove,
Confess thee a consuming fire,
And tremble, till they feel thy love.

Verse 5
Thy power was to our fathers known,
A mighty God, and terrible;
In majesty thou camest down,
The mountains at thy presence fell.

Verse 6
The wonders thou for them hast wrought
Thy boundless power and love proclaim,
Far above all they ask’d or thought:
And now we wait to know thy name.

Verse 7
We wait; for since the world began
To men it ne’er by men was shew’d:
Thou only canst thyself explain,
God only sounds the depths of God.

Verse 8
Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard,
By heart conceiv’d it cannot be,
The bliss thou hast for him prepar’d,
Who waits in humble faith for thee.

Verse 9
Thou meetest him that dares rejoice
In hope of thy salvation near;
Who wants, while he obeys thy voice,
The perfect love that casts out fear.

Verse 10
In works of righteousness employ’d
Who thee remembers in thy ways,
The ORDINANCES of his God,
The sacred channels of thy grace.

Verse 11
But lo! Thy anger kindled is,
And justly might for ever burn;
We have forsook the path of peace:
How shall our wand’ring souls return?

Verse 12
In thine appointed ways we wait,
The ways thy wisdom hath enjoin’d;
Thy saving grace we here shall meet,
If every one that seeks shall find.

Verse 13
Nor can we thus thy wrath appease;
We and our works are all unclean,
As filthy rags our righteousness,
Our good is ill, our virtue sin.

Verse 14
Like wither’d leaves we fade away,
We all deserve thy wrath to feel,
Swift as the wind our sins convey,
And sweep our guilty souls to hell.

Verse 15
Not one will call upon thy name,
Stir himself up thy grace to see,
The Lord his righteousness to claim,
And boldly to take hold on thee.

Verse 16
For O! Thy face is turn’d aside,
Since we refus’d t’ obey thy will;
Thou hast consum’d us for our pride,
Thy heavy hand consumes us still.

Verse 17
But art thou not our Father now?
Our Father now thou surely art:
Humbly beneath thy frown we bow,
We seek thee with a trembling heart.

Verse 18
The potter thou, and we the clay;
Behold us at thy footstool laid,
In anger cast us not away,
The creatures whom thy hands have made.

Verse 19
O let thine anger rage no more,
Remember not iniquity;
See, Lord, and all our sins pass o’er,
Thy own peculiar people see.

Verse 20
Jerusalem in ruins lies,
A wilderness thy cities are;
A den of thieves thy temple is,
No longer now the house of prayer.

Verse 21
Where humbly low our fathers bow’d,
And thee with joyful lips ador’d,
Idolaters profanely croud,
And take the altar for its Lord.

Verse 22
The sacred means thyself ordain’d,
Others reject with impious haste;
By these blasphem’d, by those profan’d,
Our pleasant things are all laid waste.

Verse 23
And wilt thou not this havock see,
For which we ever, ever mourn?
Still shall we cry in vain to thee?
Return, our gracious Lord, return!

Verse 24
Hold not thy peace at Sion’s woe,
O cast not out thy people’s prayer,
Regard thy suffering church below,
And spare, the weeping remnant spare.

Verse 25
Thy fallen tabernacle raise,
Thy chastisement at last remove,
That all mankind may sing thy praise,
Thou God of truth, thou God of love.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: "Isaiah lxiv." Introduced in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1740), published by John and Charles Wesley (London: William Strahan, 1740). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 1 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1868), page 366.
Publishing: Public Domain