Lyrics
Ye servants of the Lord,
Each in his office wait,
Observant of His heavenly word,
And watchful at His gate.
Let all your lamps be bright,
And trim the golden flame,
Gird up your loins, as in His sight,
For awful is His name.
Watch, 'tis your Lord's command,
And while we speak, He's near;
Mark the first signal of His hand,
And ready all appear.
O happy servant he,
In such a posture found!
He shall His Lord with rapture see,
And be with honor crowned.
Christ shall the banquet spread
With His own royal hand,
And raise that faithful servant's head
Amidst the angelic band.
Public domain hymn text (written c. 1735, published posthumously 1755), based on Luke 12:37.
The Story Behind the Hymn
Philip Doddridge wrote "Ye Servants of the Lord" roughly twenty years before its eventual publication, composing it for his own congregation in Northampton, England, where he served as a Nonconformist minister. It reached print only after his death, included in Job Orton's 1755 posthumous collection of Doddridge's hymns, Hymns Founded on Various Texts in the Holy Scriptures, under the heading "The active Christian."
Doddridge, who lived from 1702 to 1751, is remembered as one of the more significant hymn writers of the early eighteenth century, and this text is counted among his most enduringly popular, alongside "Awake, My Soul, Stretch Every Nerve," "Hark, the Glad Sound, the Savior Comes," and "O Happy Day, That Fixed My Choice."
The hymn draws its central image from the parables of watchfulness in Luke 12 and Matthew 25 — servants keeping their lamps trimmed and burning, ready for a master's unannounced return. Doddridge's verses trace that watchfulness from present readiness through to its promised reward: a servant found faithful is not merely commended but welcomed to a banquet spread by the master's own hand, among the angelic host.
Because it was written for Doddridge's own congregation rather than for publication, the hymn carries something of the texture of pastoral instruction — less a general meditation on faithfulness than a direct charge to a specific group of people he knew personally, urging them toward the same alert readiness the parables themselves describe.
