We have not known you as we ought

Authors:
Themes:
Scriptures:
  • Genesis 16:13
  • Exodus 4:10-13
  • Deuteronomy 11:1
  • Deuteronomy 6:5
  • Psalms 139:1-3
  • Psalms 94:9
  • Proverbs 9:1-6
  • Jeremiah 9:23-24
  • Matthew 10:28-30
  • Matthew 22:37
  • Matthew 24:12
  • Mark 12:30
  • Luke 10:27
  • Luke 12:5
  • John 1:10
  • Acts 14:22
  • Romans 12:11
  • 1 Corinthians 4:12
  • Colossians 4:17
  • 1 Thessalonians 4:11
  • 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15
  • Hebrews 12:28
  • Hebrews 6:12
  • 1 Peter 1:17
  • 1 John 2:15-17
  • Revelation 2:4
  • Revelation 22:3-5
  • Revelation 7:14-17
Book Number:
  • 832

We have not known you as we ought,
nor learned your wisdom, grace and power;
the things of earth have filled our thought,
mere shadows of the passing hour.
Lord, in our minds the truth renew
and make us wise in knowing you.

2. We have not feared you as we ought,
nor heeded your all-seeing eye,
nor guarded word and deed and thought,
aware of One who stands nearby.
Lord, give us faith to know you near
and grant the grace of holy fear.

3. We have not loved you as we ought,
nor cared that we are loved by you;
your presence we have coldly sought
and feebly longed your face to view.
Lord, to us each the grace impart
to love our God with all our heart.

4. We have not served you as we ought-
the many duties left undone,
the work with little fervour wrought,
the battles lost or scarcely won!
Lord, give the zeal and give the might
for you to toil, for you to fight.

5. When shall we know you as we ought
and fear and love and serve aright?
When shall we, out of trial brought,
be perfect in the land of light?
Lord, may we day by day prepare
to see your face and serve you there.

© In this version Praise Trust
Thomas B Pollock 1836-96

The Christian Life - Humbling and Restoration

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Tunes

  • Isaac=Mozart
    Isaac=Mozart
    Metre:
    • 88 88 88
    Composer:
    • Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (Joannes Chrysostomos Wolfgangus Theophilus)
  • Pater Omnium
    Pater Omnium
    Metre:
    • 88 88 88
    Composer:
    • Holmes, Henry James Ernest

The story behind the hymn

In the 1st person singular, ‘I have not known thee …’, Thomas B Pollock’s hymn was published anonymously in The Gospeller for October 1875, headed simply ‘Lord help me’. A revised text was then included in the 1889 Supplemental Hymns to A&M and in the first two 20th-c edns of the book, on whose committee the author had served. Its pattern of repetition with variation was a favourite of its author, who had earlier produced his Metrical Litanies. Changes here include 1.4–6, from ‘and trifles … / Lord, give us light thy truth to see,/ … knowing thee’; in stz 2, which many hymnals omit, from ‘nor bowed beneath thine awful eye … / remembering that God was nigh’ (for ‘holy fear’ cf 830, stz 3); 3.5–6, from ‘Lord, give a pure and loving heart/ to feel and know the love thou art’; 4.2, ‘Alas! the duties …’ The triad of ‘fear/love/serve’ at 5.2 matches the themes of stzs 2–4; books which omit stz 2 (Baptist Hymn Book, GH etc) have consequently changed this line to ‘when shall we love and serve …’

For the tune ISAAC (=MOZART) see notes to 734; for the alternative PATER OMNIUM, 160.

A look at the author

Pollock, Thomas Benson

b Strathallan, Isle of Man 1836, d Bordesley, Warwicks 1896. Trinity Coll Dublin, first studying medicine but switching to theology; BA 1859. Ordained in 1861, he served as a curate in Leek, Staffs, and Stamford Hill, Middx. In 1865 he joined his clergyman brother J S Pollock at St Alban’s Mission in Birmingham, remaining in a unique partnership for 30 years in this city parish of great poverty. Their initial ministry met much opposition, but they built up a thriving church and parochial life at some cost to the health of both men. On the death of his brother in Dec 1895, TBS succeeded him as vicar, but died himself exactly a year later. He served on the committee for A&M, which he chaired in the last year of his life. He also contributed several texts in metrical litany-mode (a series of short prayers with a repeated response) to its earlier edns, published separately as Metrical Litanies in 1870. No.832.