Thou, Lord, our dwelling-place hast been

Verse 1
Thou, Lord, our Dwelling-place hast been,
Thy faithful People rest within
Thine everlasting Arms secure,
Them Thou hast kept in Ages past,
And still their Guardian Rock stands fast,
Thy Mercies like thy Self endure.
E’er at thy Word the Mountains rose,
Or Nature felt her earliest Throes,
Or all things out of nothing came,
Thou wast from all Eternity,
Thou art the GOD, and Still shalt be
To all Eternity the Same.

Verse 2
Thy Word dispenses Life and Death:
The Creature, rendring up his Breath
Obeys thy Summons to return:
Again, Thou say’st, Ye Sons of Men
Rise! and behold they rise Again
Into the World of Spirits born.
For thou hast Immortality,
Thou Everliving GOD, to Thee
A Thousand Years are as a Day
Less than a Watch of our Short Night,
And Time as nothing in thy Sight
With all its Ages fleets away.

Verse 3
Born down th’ Irremiable Tide,
Mortals by thy Appointment glide
From Earth to the Eternal shore,
Their Life a Bubble on the Stream,
A short uneasy waking Dream;
The Bubble breaks, the Dream is o’re.
Man is a Creature of a Day:
The Grass is Green, the Flower is gay,
When in our Morn of Life we rise,
But soon arrives the Evening Hour,
Withers away the Human Flower,
Mown down as Grass the Mortal dies.

Verse 4
Beneath thine Anger, Lord, we droop,
We languish by thy Wrath parch’d up,
A fallen Sinsick, wretched Race,
For Thou our secret Sins hast known
Thine Eye hath never pass’d by One,
All, all are set before thy Face.
Shortned our Days by Wrath Divine,
Our Breath we hasten to resign,
And own the Mortal Sentence just:
Our Years are spent, the Fable ends,
The Tale is told, the Spirit ascends
To GOD, the Dust returns to Dust.

Verse 5
Our Age is Threescore Years and ten,
Beyond is Sorrow all and Pain,
And meer laborious Misery;
Our longest Life so soon is past,
The Vapour vanishes so fast,
So Swift from Earth the Shadows flee.
But who regards the Wrath Divine,
Or knows that dreadful Hand of Thine,
In all its just vindictive Weight!
Worse than the worst that Sinners fear
Thy Wrath Eternally severe,
Consigns them to their Hellish State.

Verse 6
Instructed by thy Heavenly Grace
To count the Fewness of our Days,
O might we all our Hearts apply
T’ attain the Wisdom from above;
And learn, before we hence remove,
Our One great Business is to die.
How long shall thy fierce Anger burn?
Now to reverse our Doom return,
Thy Mercy to thy Servants shew,
Fill us with Love, and Peace, and Joy,
And let us all our Days employ
In publishing thy Praise below.

Verse 7
Comfort, and make thy Sufferers glad,
For Days and Years distrest and sad,
And bruis’d by thy afflictive Rod,
O let us now thy Goodness see,
For Days and Years rejoice in Thee,
The GOD, of Love, the Pardning GOD.
Let Mercy bring Salvation near,
Let all thy Works of Grace appear
To those that would thy Will obey,
To all their Seed, who yield t’ embrace
The Gift Divine, in Jesu’s Face,
Thy Glorious Majesty display.

Verse 8
O put us on our Beautious Dress,
Adorn us with thine Holiness,
Thine Image to our Souls restore,
In us let all thy Nature Shine
Fill us with Righteousness Divine
And Sin shall never enter more.

[unfinished]

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “Psalm XC.” This hymn appears in the ca. 1749 manuscript “MS Psalms.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/553, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 1). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 8 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 171.
Publishing: Public Domain