Unless stated otherwise, my source for hymn texts and tunes is The Lutheran Service Book.

Wednesday, August 20, 2025

LSB #798 "The God of Abraham Praise"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Exodus 3:6, 14; Psalm 142:5-6; Psalm 9:7-11; Revelation 4:8

Exodus 3:6:  "And he said, 'I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'  And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God."

Exodus 3:14:  "God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.'  And he said, 'Say this to the people of Israel, "I AM has sent me to you."'"

Psalm 142:5-6:  "5 I cry to you, O LORD; I say, 'You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.'  6 Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low!  Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me!"

Psalm 9:7-11:  "7 But the LORD sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, 8 and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness.

"9 The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.  10 And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

"11 Sing praises to the LORD, who sits enthroned in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds!"

Revelation 4:8:  "And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!'"

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The text is public domain:
1 The God of Abr'ham praise,
Who reigns enthroned above;
Ancient of everlasting days
And God of love.
Jehovah, great I AM!
By earth and heav'n confessed;
I bow and bless the sacred name
Forever blest.

2 The God of Abr'ham praise,
At whose supreme command
From earth I rise and seek the joys
At His right hand.
I all on earth forsake,
Its wisdom, fame, and pow'r,
And Him my only portion make,
My shield and tow'r.

3 The God of Abr'ham praise,
Whose all-sufficient grace
Shall guide me all my pilgrim days
In all my ways.
He deigns to call me friend;
He calls Himself my God.
And He shall save me to the end
Through Jesus' blood.

4 He by Himself has sworn;
I on His oath depend.
I shall, on eagle wings upborne,
To heav'n ascend.
I shall behold His face;
I shall His pow'r adore
And sing the wonders of His grace
Forevermore.

5 Though nature's strength decay,
And earth and hell withstand,
To Canaan's bounds I urge my way
At His command.
The wat'ry deep I pass,
With Jesus in my view,
And through the howling wilderness
My way pursue.

6 The goodly land I see,
With peace and plenty blest:
A land of sacred liberty
And endless rest.
There milk and honey flow,
And oil and wine abound,
And trees of life forever grow
With mercy crowned.

7 There dwells the Lord our king,
The Lord our righteousness,
Triumphant o'er the world and sin,
The Prince of Peace.
On Zion's sacred height
His kingdom He maintains
And glorious with His saints in light
Forever reigns.

8 The God who reigns on high
The great archangels sing,
And "Holy, holy, holy!" cry,
"Almighty King!
Who was and is the same
And evermore shall be:
Jehovah, Father, great I AM!
We worship Thee!"

9 The whole triumphant host
Give thanks to God on high.
"Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!"
They ever cry.
Hail, Abr'ham's God and mine!
I join the heav'nly lays:
All might and majesty are Thine
And endless praise!
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Exodus 3:6 appears in the repeated line "The God of Abr'ham praise" in the first three verses (which also incorporates "Sing praises to the LORD" from Psalm 9:11) and in the line "Hail, Abr'ham's God and mine!" in the ninth, and Exodus 3:14 appears in the lines "Jehovah, great I AM!" in the first verse and "Jehovah, Father, great I AM!" in the eighth.

Psalm 142:5-6, specifically "You are... my portion in the land of the living," appears in the line "And Him my only portion make" in the second verse.

The passage from Psalm 9, particularly "the LORD sits enthroned forever," shows up most clearly in the seventh and eighth verses:  "His kingdom He maintains / And glorious with His saints in light / Forever reigns. // The God who reigns on high."

Revelation 4:8 is the basis for most of the eighth verse, although there's also a resemblance to the seraphim in Isaiah 6:3:  "And one called to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!'"  

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The title "Ancient of everlasting days" in the first verse comes from Daniel 7:13:  "'I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.'"

The line "My shield and tow'r" at the end of the second verse could come from the "refuge" or "stronghold" in the Psalms cited above, but this specific imagery is also prevalent in other Psalms.  God as a shield appears in Psalm 3:3, 28:7, 33:20, 84:11, and God as a tower appears in Psalm 61:3 and Proverbs 18:10.

The line "Whose all-sufficient grace" in the third verse seems to be drawn from 2 Corinthians 12:9:  "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'"

The line "He deigns to call me friend" in the third verse may refer to John 15:14-16:  "14 'You are my friends if you do what I command you.  15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.  16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.'"

The lines "I shall, on eagle wings upborne, / To heavn' ascend. / I shall behold His face" in the fourth verse seem to combine parts of Isaiah 40:31 ("but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles") and 1 Corinthians 13:12 ("For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.").

The description "There milk and honey flow" in the sixth verse occurs a number of times in the Pentateuch, first in Exodus 3:8:  "and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites."

In the seventh verse, the title "The Lord our righteousness" appears a couple times in Jeremiah (23:6 and 33:16), and the title "The Prince of Peace" is taken from Isaiah 9:6.

Most of the ninth verse seems to be drawn from Revelation 7, particularly verses 9-10:  "9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'"