Opening Songs
Open Now Thy Gates of Beauty
- Words:
- Benjamin Schmolck, 1730. Translated by Catherine Winkworth, 1863.
- Music:
- 'Unser Herrscher' or 'Neander' Joachim Neander, 1680.
- Setting:
- "Chorale Book for England", 1863.
- Metre:
- 8 7 8 7 7 7
- 1Open now thy gates of beauty,Zion, let me enter there,Where my soul in joyful dutyWaits for Him Who answers prayer.Oh, how blessèd is this place,Filled with solace, light and grace!
- 2Lord, my God, I come before Thee,Come Thou also unto me;Where we find Thee and adore Thee,There a heav'n on earth must be.To my heart, oh, enter Thou,Let it be Thy temple now!
- 3Here Thy praise is gladly chanted,Here Thy seed is duly sown;Let my soul, where it is planted,Bring forth precious sheaves alone,So that all I hear may beFruitful unto life in me.
- 4Thou my faith increase and quicken,Let me keep Thy gift divine,Howsoe'er temptations thicken;May Thy Word still o'er me shineAs my guiding star through life,As my comfort in my strife.
- 5Speak, O God, and I will hear Thee,Let Thy will be done indeed;May I undisturbed draw near TheeWhile Thou dost Thy people feed.Here of life the fountain flows,Here is balm for all our woes.
More sheet music
Scripture
Topics
In the hymnals
- The words are in 159 hymnals indexed by Hymnary.org. Their history →
- The tune, Unser Herrscher, is in 327 hymnals. The tune →
Words, music and setting are in the public domain. The score is from the Open Hymnal Project (Brian J. Dumont), which places its own work in the public domain. Further sheet music is from PDHymns.com. The piano is the FluidR3 General MIDI sound font (MIT licence). How many hymnals print a hymn, and when it was written, is from Hymnary.org.