This page is provided so that you can hear the tunes of items which we use in church. Mostly they are written by the vicar. Please note that they are copyright - we are very happy to give permission to you to use them, but we would like to hear about it. Please include any use on your Christian Copyright Licence returns.
Down this page:
- the words,
- the story,
- the sheet music,
- media player.
O great and awesome God
O great and awesome God
O great and awesome God,
you keep your covenant of love with your people.
We have sinned, we've rebelled,
we have turned away;
we've ignored those who speak
of your word today.
Lord, you're righteous,
but we are covered in shame;
we're transgressors,
we have dishonoured your name.
Lord, forgive!
Lord, forgive!
O great and awesome God,
please turn your wrath
and righteous rage from your people:
Lord, please hear, Lord, please act,
cleanse our hearts from sin;
you are mercy incarnate
so enter in
to our chaos:
Lord please restore us again,
not because we are righteous,
but for your holy name.
Lord, forgive!
Lord, forgive!
The Lord, the Lord,
the compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,
the Lord, the Lord,
maintaining love to thousands,
forgiving sin, rebellion and wickedness.
Turn your anger from your people O Lord:
take pity on your land, your holy hill.
O Jesus, Son of God,
you bring the mercy of your Father among us.
You have died on the cross,
stopped the power of sin,
took its guilt and its loss,
broke its grip within,
bought us freedom
and brought us back to your home,
to your kingdom,
where we will know as we're known:
Lord, we praise,
Lord, we praise you now.
Words and tune copyright © John Hartley 2007.
Based on Daniel 9:4-7, 16-19, and Exodus 34:6-7.
Story behind the song
I wrote the text of verses 1 and 2 of this song, and most of the tune of the verses, during a train journey from Bradford to London (on my way to argue against a change in English laws about weddings - so maybe the idea of corporate confession was on my mind!). I've always found Daniel 9 to be a rich source of inspiration about confession, and as it is the basis of many prayers I wondered if it could be the lyric for a song. The character of God as revealed to Moses in Exodus 34 seemed to be the anchor to provide confidence for praying a prayer of confession at all, and of course Christians see Jesus as the fulfilment of God's righteousness and forgiveness. However I wasn't able to find a New Testament passage to complete the piece, and the last verse is an amagamation of ideas from the whole New Testament.
John Hartley.
Windows Media Player. When you click the left-hand "play" button your computer should have started to play the tune. If it didn't, you might be able to get the tune by clicking here, or by right-clicking the link, choosing "save target as", saving it onto your computer, and then opening it with a music-playing program.
Please remember that a midi file of a tune isn't supposed to be a state-of-the-art musical arrangement - it is only supposed to give a basic idea of how the tune goes. Any reasonable organist / keyboard player / music group could make it sound far better.