Praise we the Father, who, ere earth was founded,
Ere had the ages yet their race begun,
Searchless His wisdom, and His love unbounded,
Chose us companions with His glorious Son.
Holy and blameless and in love before Him,
Sons with His Son, and His delight to be.
O let us worship Him! Let us adore Him!
Low at His footstool let us bend the knee.
Men, and not angels were His objects gracious,
Never His legions who in strength excel;
These are His servants in His empire spacious,
Guards of His heritage from angels fell.
Man, made a little less than those immortals,
Quick while his nostrils shall his breath retain,
Waits but the day in which death's dingy portals
Lead him to mother earth and dust again.
Yet it was man the Maker set His love on,
Man His base enemy in heart and mind,
Man an incorrigible rebel proven,
Blind to his lost estate, to mercy blind.
Man may be just what sin and Satan made him,
Not what he is was he the choice of God,
When God has killed him, quickened and arrayed him
Kissed as a son and richly robed and shod.
Not what he is but what the living Father
Sees him and knows what He can have him be;
Such did He see him when resolved to gather
Sons with His Son a glorious company:
Counsels eternal had our names all written
Blazoned with glory in the Book of Life,
Ere our first father had by sin been smitten,
Ere had his helper proved a foolish wife.
Counsels of blessings, not of retribution,
Not for a single moment need we fear;
Far from our spirits keep that dark delusion,
We have not trusted in a God austere.
Therefore let us be evermore rejoicing,
Praising our God whom we have known in love,
And His compassions great may we be voicing
Till we are with Him in His home above.