O Praise Ye the Lord, Prepare a New Song

O praise ye the Lord

pre­pare a new song

And let all His saints in full con­cert join;

Ye tribes all as­sem­ble

the feast to pro­long

In so­lemn pro­cess­ion

with mu­sic di­vine.

O Is­ra­el

in Him that made thee

re­joice

Let all Zi­on’s sons ex­ult in their king;

While to mar­tial danc­es you join a glad voice

Your lutes

harps and tim­brels

in har­mo­ny bring.

The Lord in His saints still finds His de­light

Salvation from Him the meek shall ad­orn;

They well may be joy­ful

sus­tained by His might

And crowned by His fa­vor may lift up their horn.

Let car­pets be spread

and ban­quets pre­pared

Those al­tars around

whence in­cense as­cends;

Whilst an­thems of glo­ry thro’ Sa­lem are heard

And God

whom we wor­ship

in­dul­gent at­tends.

Then as your hearts bound with mu­sic and wine

Inspired by the God who reigns in the place

Unsheath all your wea­pons

and bright let them shine

And bran­dish your fal­chi­ons

while chant­ing His praise.

Then march to the field

the hea­then de­fy

And scat­ter His wrath on na­tions around;

Like an­gels of ven­geance your swords lift on high

And boast that Je­ho­vah com­miss­ions the wound.

Their ge­ner­als sub­dued

your tri­umphs shall grace

And load­ed with chains

their kings shall be brought;

The necks shall ye tram­ple of Ca­naan’s proud race

And all their last rem­nant for slaugh­ter be sought.

No rage of your own such ri­gor de­mands;

A sen­tence di­vine your arms must ful­fill;

Of old He this ven­geance con­signed to your hands

And in sac­red vol­umes re­cord­ed His will.

This hon­or

ye saints

ap­point­ed for you

All-grate­ful re­ceive

and faith­ful ob­ey

And while this dread plea­sure re­sist­less ye do

Still make His high prais­es the song of the day.