Bow down your ear, O Lord, and hear

Authors:
Themes:
Scriptures:
  • Exodus 15:11
  • Exodus 34:6-7
  • Numbers 14:18
  • Judges 6:17
  • Nehemiah 9:17
  • Psalms 112:4
  • Psalms 130:4
  • Psalms 145:8-9
  • Psalms 25:11
  • Psalms 31:2
  • Psalms 40:17
  • Psalms 86:15
  • Jeremiah 32:39
  • Ezekiel 11:19
  • Joel 2:13
  • Jonah 4:2
  • Revelation 15:4
Book Number:
  • 86

Bow down your ear, O Lord, and hear,
though poor and needy, I draw near,
preserve my life, O God;
have mercy, Lord, I cry to you,
rejoice your servant’s soul anew;
I look to you, O Lord.

2. O Lord, so ready to forgive,
since all who seek your mercy live,
be pleased to hear my prayer:
receive my earnest heart’s request,
when troubles, fears and foes molest,
save me from every snare.

3. Among the gods of all the earth,
and all their works, of little worth,
no god like you is known;
all nations at your feet shall fall
to name you mighty Lord of all,
for you are God alone.

4. Teach me your way, your truth my aim,
unite my heart to fear your name
and sing your power to save;
I’ll praise you, Lord, for evermore,
your mercy rich, abundant, sure,
has spared me from the grave.

5. O God, the proud have brought me strife,
a mob has tried to take my life,
they do not seek your face.
Lord, slow to anger, you abound
in love and deep compassion, crowned
with mercy, truth and grace.

6. O Lord, in mercy, turn and see,
grant new reserves of grace to me,
and save your faithful son;
give me a sign that all is well,
shame all my foes, that I may tell
of all that you have done.

© Author
Jim Sayers

Psalms

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Tune

  • Manna
    Manna
    Metre:
    • 886 886
    Composer:
    • Schicht, Johann Gottfried

The story behind the hymn

‘Teach me your way, O LORD’; that plea from v11 of the Psalm (also Psalm 27:11) has prompted many other prayers, not a few sermons, and at least one traditional hymn. It was clearly an essential component of Jim Sayers’ version, written towards the end of work for the present book in 1998, in a caravan at Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast. The text faithfully conveys the spirit of the Scripture which is headed ‘Prayer for mercy, with meditation on the excellencies of the LORD’ (NKJV). ‘Stanza 3 is very relevant in a multicultural society’—JS, who finds here the uniqueness of God the LORD but questions whether we now need to sing ‘give me a sign’ (6.4). The Psalm is ‘a mosaic of fragments’ says Kirkpatrick, ‘yet it possess a pathetic earnestness and tender grace of its own’. ‘A man of God is at prayer, with a request in almost every verse’—J A Motyer. For the tune, the editors have chosen MANNA, one of nearly 300 by J G Schicht in his Allgemeines Choral-Buch of 1819 (Vol 2), and introduced to English congregations by three of the 20th-c editions of A&M (1904 onwards). Its name was first given as ICH KAM AUS MEINER MUTTER SCHOSS from its original text, ‘I came from my mother’s womb’; the present one reflects its 1904 setting to O food that weary pilgrims love, which includes ‘O manna of the saints’. The author had hoped that his text would match one of the tunes he knew in this metre from Strict (Grace) Baptist books, but eventually concluded that something different was needed, as here.

A look at the author

Sayers, James (Jim) David

b Epsom, Surrey 1966. Ashcombe Sch Dorking, Univ Coll of Wales, Aberystwyth (LL.B) and Edinburgh Theological Seminary (DipTh, M.Th). After two and a half years as assistant to Brian Edwards at Hook Evangelical Ch (FIEC), Surbiton, he became Pastor of Kesgrave Grace Baptist Ch, Ipswich, Suffolk, from 1995. Then in 2009 he moved to Abingdon to become Communications Director of Grace Baptist Mission. In 2020 he moved to Didcot to lead a church-plant, Grace Church Didcot. He chaired the team selecting versions of the 150 Psalms for Praise! He became a trustee of Praise Trust in 2016, and chairman in 2018.

He has 10 published texts, as here, of which the first he wrote (1994) was based on Ps 30. Nos.2B, 30A, 39, 59, 69A, 71, 86, 719, 1013, 1249. He also wrote the revised version of O Holy Night CP47