San Francisco Central Seventh-day Adventist Church

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36 O Thou in Whose Presence

Today's Hymn of Praise is #36, O Thou, In Whose Presence. The words are part of a long poem of nine stanzas of eight lines each, written in 1791 by Joseph Swain, and published as Redemption: A Poem in Five Parts. He later republished it as A Description of Christ by His Graces and Power. From Solomon's Song.

Freeman Lewis composed the tune, BELOVED; or as it is sometimes known, DULCIMER. Although the tune is allegedly an old folk-tune, the melody of the first line is almost identical to a line in the second movement of Haydn's Drum Roll Symphony No. 103 in E-flat major. Hubert Main, an employee of the famous hymn-writer and publisher William Bradbury, arranged the music in its present form.

O Thou in whose presence my soul takes delight,
On whom in affliction I call,
My comfort by day and my song in the night,
My hope, my salvation, my all!

His voice, as the sound of the dulcimer sweet,
Is heard through the shadows of death;
The cedars of Lebanon bow at His feet,
The air is perfumed with His breath.

His lips, as a fountain of righteousness flow,
To water the gardens of grace;
From which their salvation the Gentiles shall know,
And bask in the smiles of His face.

He looks, and ten thousands of angels rejoice,
And myriads wait for His word;
He speaks, and eternity, filled with His voice,
Re-echoes the praise of the Lord.