O Worship the King

Charles Grant

Charles Grant (1778-1838) was born in India. His family moved back to England when he was seven years old. He became a lawyer at age 29. He became a member of Parliament at 48 and was elected Judge Advocate General at 54. At age 56 he was knighted and then appointed Governor of Bombay, India. He died at the age of 60, while serving in India.

Grant was a politician and a public servant of England. He was also a devout Evangelical Christian who took every opportunity to share the Good News. He was a financial supporter of missionaries, and was loved by the people of India, who established a Medical College in his honor.

Several of Grant's writings, prose and poetry, were published during his lifetime. After his death, his brother gathered 12 of Grant's poems into a book titled Sacred Poems. One of those poems, O Worship the King was set to music by Johann Michael Hadyn (1737-1806), and has appeared in church hymnals ever since.



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 splendor, 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 thunderclouds 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;
Established 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 distills 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 worship Thee above,
The humbler creation, though feeble their lays,
With true adoration shall all sing Thy praise.

“ O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.” (Psalm 95:6)