God of the world’s great cities

God of the world’s great cities
with all their soaring towers,
as commerce builds its empires
and multiplies its powers:
this is the earth that Jesus trod;
do not abandon us, O God!

2. God of the crushed and broken
whose burdens Jesus bore,
in park and street and subway
you seek the hopeless poor:
still come to find them and to save
whose city is their lifelong grave.

3. God of the friends and neighbours
whose pleasures Jesus knew,
whose births and deaths and weddings
bring tangled thoughts of you:
in you they live and grow and move;
O, let them taste your total love!

4. God of the proud and mighty,
when crime or folly rules
remove earth’s vicious tyrants,
restrain its godless fools:
grant those you keep in their high place
to love your truth, and know your grace.

5. God of the struggling remnant
baptized to bear that name
which at the end of all things
shall stand alone, supreme:
O, help your church, by your strong hand,
confessing Christ, in Christ to stand.

6. God of the dawning kingdom,
while human wealth decays
you build a different city
of pure and lasting praise:
here let your people live, O Lord,
in Christ refashioned and restored.