Great Our Joy as Now We Gather

Great Our Joy as Now We Gather

Text written in 1972 by Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000)

Sung to MICHAEL, composed in 1936 by Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

Galations 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 

V. 1 Great our joy as now we gather

Where the Master makes us one:

Where we worship God the Father 

Thro' the Spirit of His Son.

All who search for His church

Find it where His will is done.

Proverbs 18:10 The wealth of the rich is their fortified city;

they imagine it a wall too high to scale.

John 10:16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

V. 2 Precious is the tie that binds us

To our God when faith grows cold;

Precious all that now reminds us

He is still our safe stronghold.

Faithful love serves to prove

Here the Shepherd has His fold.

Mark 11:15-17 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’ ? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’ ”

V. 3 May we learn from Christ's example

How to use this house of prayer:

He who loved and cleansed His temple

Wants us all to worship there.

God the Son shuts out none:

In His Kingdom all may share.

Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

V. 4 Lord, inspire us with Your vision

Of a world which must be won!

Glorious is the church's mission,

Long endeavored, scarce begun!

Faithful now--this is how

God's eternal will is done.