Before Thy Throne, O God, We Kneel
Before Thy Throne, O God, We Kneel
Before Thy throne, O God, we kneel;
Give us a conscience quick to feel,
A ready mind to understand
The meaning of Thy chastening hand;
Whate’er the pain and shame may be,
Bring us, O Father, nearer Thee.
Search out our hearts and make us true;
Wishful to give to all their due.
From love of pleasure, lust of gold,
From sins which make the heart grow cold,
Wean us and train us with Thy rod;
Teach us to know our faults, O God.
For sins of heedless word and deed,
For pride, ambitious to succeed,
For crafty trade and subtle snare
To catch the simple unaware,
For lives bereft of purpose high,
Forgive, forgive, O Lord, we cry.
Let the fierce fires which burn and try
Our inmost spirits purify:
Consume the ill; purge out the shame;
O God, be with us in the flame;
A newborn people may we rise,
More pure, more true, more nobly wise.
WILLIAM BOYD CARPENTER, bishop of Rixon, England, wrote this hymn for Christians whose consciences needed tenderizing. It is much like the words of the psalmist in Psalm 139:23: “Search me, O God, and know my heart.” There is so much packed into this hymn of confession that it is difficult to sing. It is better to meditate upon it phrase by phrase.
Our lives become so busy that we lose track of sins that are accepted as normal by our society. Bishop Carpenter speaks of our need to be delivered “from love of pleasure, lust of gold, from sins which make the heart grow cold.” We need to take time to kneel humbly before our holy God, to search our hearts before Him, and to ask Him to “give us a conscience quick to feel.”
Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. Then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you.
Psalm 51:10-13
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