Church Hymnal 24
How Pleasant, How Divinely Fair
Words: Isaac WattsMusic: [unclear]Tune: [unclear]C.M.
1How pleasant, how divinely fair,
O Lord of hosts, Thy dwellings are!
With long desire my spirit faints
To meet the assemblies of Thy saints.
2My flesh would rest in Thine abode,
My panting heart cries out for God;
My God! my King! why should I be
So far from all my joys and Thee?
3The sparrow builds herself a nest
And suffers no remove;
O make me, like the sparrows, blessed
To dwell but where I love.
4To spend one day with Thee on earth
Exceeds a thousand days
Of sinful mirth;
A day within Thy courts to be
Is sweeter, Lord, than all the world to me.
- Words
- Isaac Watts
- Music
- [unclear]
- Tune
- [unclear]
- Also sung to
- Burford (Hymns and Tunes 1886 #3)
- Meter
- C.M.
- Scripture
- Psalm 84
Public Domain
The verse
- Meter
- 8.8.8.9 · the hymnal prints C.M.
- Foot
- iambic (da-DUM) · 75% of beats fit
- Rhyme
- ABCD
Could also be sung to Azmon, Coronation, Ortonville, Cantate Domino, Christmas · same meter and stresses; not printed with these words, so try it first.
Scan every line
/ stressed · ˘ unstressed · ? not in the dictionary · * a word sung short, as “heav’n”
Verse 1
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Verse 3
Verse 4
Counted by machine from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. It cannot hear emphasis or a poet’s licence, so treat it as a place to start reading, not the last word.