Latinised Hymns

O worship the King all glorious above

O worship the King all glorious above;
O gratefully sing his power and his love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendour and girded with praise.

O tell of his might, O sing of his grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space;
His chariots of wrath the deep thunder clouds form,
And dark is his path on the wings of the storm.

The earth with its store of wonders untold,
Almighty, thy power hath founded of old;
Hath stablished it fast by a changeless decree,
And round it hath cast, like a mantle, the sea.

Thy bountiful care what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distils in the dew and the rain.

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end!
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

O measureless Might, ineffable Love,
While angels delight to hymn thee above,
Thy ransomed creation, though feeble their lays,
With true adoration shall sing to thy praise.

R. Grant (Ps.104)

Superna regens, laudare, Deus,
amore potens, quem nunc canimus,
ut parmula tutus, aetate vetus,
splendorem indutus et omne decus.

Tua inclyta vis et gratia sit:
cinctum radiis te inane capit,
vehuntque tonantem, irate, rotae,
et ante volantem eunt tenebrae.

Terraeque manu, o omnipotens,
fundamina tu locasti valens,
quam lege premis stabilem stabili
circumque venis, uti veste, mari.

Tuam quis opem, quae lingua, canat?
Nitens hilarem per aera flat;
ad infima vallis e collibus it,
ut ros pluvialis in imbre cadit.

Gens cineribus nata et fragiles,
te respicimus nec debilis es;
ut bona dedisti, sic et bona das:
creasti, tulisti, defendis, amas.

O splendida vis, mirandus amor!
Tibi a superis cum detur honor,
plebs, voce beata minore licet,
a te fabricata redempta canet.

MM 19–29.8.98