To build this house, O Lord, display

Verse 1
To build this house, O Lord, display
Thy special presence here,
And now the right foundation lay
In humble faith and fear;
A measure of thy Spirit’s grace
Be now on each bestow’d,
That each may heavenward turn his face,
And lift his heart to God.

Verse 2
We lift our hearts to God in thee
Appeas’d and pacified;
O might we all accepted be,
And feel thy blood applied!
Part of thy family below
This moment let us prove,
Into young men, and fathers grow,
And rise to perfect love.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Except the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost that build it.”—[Psalm] cxxvii. 1. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 1 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 9 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 333.
Publishing: Public Domain