Strengthen for Service, Lord

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Composer
Benjamin Lane
Difficulty
Moderately Difficult radio_button_checked radio_button_checked radio_button_checked radio_button_checked radio_button_unchecked
Season
Season After Pentecost Communion General
Voicing(s)
SATB
Instruments
Unaccompanied [a cappella]
Category
Anthems
Instrumental Only?
No
Description

SATB a cappella. Stirring and complex, with beautiful harmonies and sensitive text-setting. Text by Charles William Humphries, from a 5th-century Syriac Malabar liturgy.

Audio
Lyrics

Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands
That holy things have taken;
Let ears that now have heard thy songs
to clamor never waken.

Lord, may the tongues which ‘Holy’ sang
Keep free from all deceiving;
The eyes which saw Thy love be bright
Thy blessèd hope perceiving.

The feet that tread Thy holy courts
From light do Thou not banish;
The bodies by Thy body fed
With Thy new life replenish.