Lyrics
The God of Abraham praise,
Who reigns enthroned above,
Ancient of everlasting days,
And God of love;
Jehovah, great I AM,
By earth and heaven confessed;
I bow and bless the sacred name,
Forever blest.
The God of Abraham 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 power;
And Him my only portion make,
My shield and tower.
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, Lord, the great I AM,
We worship Thee.
The whole triumphant host
Give thanks to God on high;
Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
They ever cry;
Hail, Abraham's Lord divine!
With heaven our songs we raise;
All might and majesty are Thine,
And endless praise.
Public domain hymn text (1770). Words by Thomas Olivers.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Thomas Olivers is already discussed elsewhere in this collection as the Welsh Methodist preacher who composed the tune ‘Helmsley’ for ‘Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending’. He also personally wrote the text of this hymn in 1770.
He adapted it from the Yigdal, a Hebrew liturgical poem summarizing the thirteen principles of Jewish faith formulated by the medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides, traditionally recited or sung in synagogue worship.
According to a widely repeated account, Olivers attended a Sabbath service at a London synagogue. There, he heard a well-known Jewish cantor named Meyer Lyon, also known by the professional name Leoni, sing the traditional Yigdal melody.
He was sufficiently moved by both the words and the tune that he asked Lyon to teach him the melody directly. He then adapted it, together with a new English text closely following the Yigdal’s own content, for Christian congregational use.
The resulting hymn represents an unusually direct and openly acknowledged act of borrowing from Jewish liturgical tradition into Christian hymnody. That happened at a time when relatively little formal contact or exchange existed between English Christian and Jewish religious communities.
The tune retains its original Hebrew name, ‘Leoni,’ in tribute to the cantor who taught it to Olivers.
Olivers himself had a notably turbulent early life before his conversion — reportedly orphaned young and drawn into troublemaking as a youth, before hearing George Whitefield preach.
He went on to work for a period as an itinerant Methodist preacher, and later as an editor of John Wesley’s own periodical. That makes this hymn, with its roots reaching directly back through a London synagogue cantor to medieval Jewish philosophy, one of the more unusual cross-cultural collaborations found anywhere in the history of English hymnody.
