Hymn
For a Public Fast
- Writer
- Anne Steele
- Theme
- Prayer
See, gracious God, before thy throne
Thy mourning people bend
'Tis on thy sovereign grace alone,
Our humble hopes depend.
Tremendous judgements from thy hand
Thy dreadful power display;
Yet mercy spares this guilty land,
And still we live to pray.
Why is America thus spar'd,
Ungrateful as we are!
O make thy awful warnings heard,
While mercy cries, "Forbear."
Sinners regardless of thy frown,
Their pleasures they require;
And sink with gay indifference down,
To everlasting fire.
O turn us, turn us, mighty Lord,
By thy resistless grace;
Then shall our hearts obey thy word,
And humbly seek thy face.
For a Public Fast — Text from A Selection of Psalms and Hymns, 1790. Public domain. https://yeshuanow.com/hymns/for-a-public-fast
No chord chart yet
Want to know when they're ready? Leave your email and we'll tell you.
Questions about this hymn
Who wrote For a Public Fast?
The words of For a Public Fast were written by Anne Steele; the version here was published in 1790. The library holds 47 more hymns by Anne Steele, including A Dying Savior and Pardon and Rest for the Weary Soul.
Is For a Public Fast public domain?
Yes. The words here are taken from A Selection of Psalms and Hymns, published in 1790. Works published before 1931 are out of copyright in the United States, so you can print, project, perform and record this hymn freely. How we source and check every hymn.
What is the meter of For a Public Fast?
For a Public Fast is in Common Meter (8.6.8.6). Hymns in the same meter can usually be sung to the same tunes — for example, Preservation by Day and Night, Walking in the Ways of Christ and God's Condescension.