Look Upon Me With Eyes of Mercy

 

O most gracious God and loving Father,
Who knows when I lay down and when I rise

I beseech you Lord as you behold my heart  
To look upon me now with mercy’s eyes.

So, Lord I pray, sanctify  unto me  
The peace that passes understanding’s bounds

That I may have the grace to walk before thee,
To do Your work wherever it is found

Oh look upon me with eyes of mercy, 

This wretched sinner make into a saint

You are near to all who call upon Thee

Strengthen me lest my faith shall faint.

Hasten, Father, the coming of your namesake  
Make me mindful of my final end, 

And of the reckoning that I am then to make
Of how on grace alone  I did depend

And in the meanwhile help me to be careful  
to follow Christ  and walk within His light

So in the regeneration I’ll be prayerful
To walk be faith alone and not by sight

 

Oh look upon me with eyes of mercy, 

This wretched sinner make into a saint

You are near to all who call upon Thee

Strengthen me lest my faith shall faint.

Oh that with Christ, that I may have a portion  
In the resurrection of the just, 

When this mortal life is ended  
To meet the mercy in which I place my trust

All that’s required and necessary for me,  
I humbly beg and crave now from thy hand
These graces, and all other blessings,  
now by your mercy I can rise and stand .

Oh look upon me with eyes of mercy, 

This wretched sinner make into a saint

You are near to all who call upon Thee

Strengthen me lest my faith shall faint.

Anthony Foster

based on a Puritan prayer by Lewis Bayly

June 6, 2021