Groaning for Redemption

The following hymn is Part III of “Groaning for Redemption” by Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems of 1742, pages 107-108. It is written in Meter 88.88.88. – or Long Particular Meter. The rhyme alternates in the first four stanzas, with a different rhyme in the last two. The hymn extols the will or decree of God over the will or desire of his saints – “To thy dread sovereign will I bow, Thy will be done, thy name adored.” I have not found this with a tune setting, but it could be sung to Abraham Maxim’s Bridgeton, and probably most L.P.M. tunes.

1. Omniscient, omnipresent King,

The true, and merciful, and just,

To thee my last distress I bring,

To thee my desperate cause I trust,

I give my fond complainings o’er,

I set my God a time no more.

2. My time, O God, is in thine hand,

Thou know’st my feebleness of soul,

Able thou art to make me stand,

Thou canst this moment speak me whole,

Or keep me thus till my last hour,

To shew forth all thy saving power.

3. I leave it all to thee alone,

Thy counsellor I cannot be,

To thee thy every work is known,

And secret things belong to thee,

Thy manner, and thy time is best:

But let me enter into rest.

4. The hireling longeth for his hire,

The watcher for the break of day,

But, O my restless heart’s desire,

Let me not murmur at thy stay;

Be stopt my mouth, and fail my tongue,

But let thy Spirit groan, How long!

5 The thing thou dost I know not now,

But I shall know hereafter, Lord,

To thy dread sovereign will I bow,

Thy will be done, thy name ador’d,

Act for the glory of thy name:

Lo! In thy gracious hands I am.

6. Act for thine own, and Sion’s sake,

And let thy will in me be done;

If but one soul may comfort take

By hearing me so deeply groan,

Still let me all my burthen feel,

And groan, and weep, and suffer still.

7. If but one tempted soul may find

Relief by my afflicted state,

I would be patient, and resign’d,

Still in the iron furnace wait;

Still let the sin, the grief, the pain,

The thorn in my weak flesh remain.

8. Still let my bleeding heart be torn,

If other bleeding hearts it cheer,

Disconsolate for thee I mourn,

My nature’s cross consent to bear,

To languish for my Lord’s delay,

And weep a thousand lives away.