O Heavenly Jerusalem Lyrics
Translator: Isaac Williams (1839)
O Heavenly Jerusalem,
Of everlasting halls,
Thrice blessèd are the people
Thou storest in thy walls.
Thou art the golden mansion,
Where saints forever sing,
The seat of God’s own chosen,
The palace of the King.
There God forever sitteth,
Himself of all the crown;
The Lamb, the Light that shineth,
And never goeth down.
Naught to this seat approacheth
Their sweet peace to molest;
They sing their God forever,
Nor day nor night they rest.
Sure hope doth thither lead us;
Our longings thither tend;
May shortlived toil ne’er daunt us
For joys that cannot end.
To Christ, the Sun that lightens
His Church above, below;
To Father, and to Spirit
All things created bow.
O Heavenly Jerusalem Hymn History
This hymn, O heavenly Jerusalem, was originally a Latin hymn, ‘Caelestis O Jerusalem’. It is said that it was first found in a Toulouse Breviary of 1777. This hymn was translated into English by Isaac Williams in 1861.
Isaac williams was born in 1802 at Cwmcynfelin, near Aberystwyth in Wales. He however grew up in London in a very wealthy part of the capital city of the United Kingdom.
He suffered quite a lot from chronic asthma. He was forced because of asthma into virtual retirement in 1848 and spent this time writing his Autobiography and educating his children until he died in 1865.
