Minister: Lift up your hearts!
Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord!
Great God of the city, the city of Zion,
Your foundation stands sure,
Your foundation is in the holy mountains.
Your city is in the holy mountains.
You love the gates of Zion,
You love the public worship of Your saints
More than all the prayers that are offered up
In the private dwellings of Jacob.
The congregation is greater than the private heart.
Glorious things are spoken of you,
Of you, the glorious city of God.
We rest and mediate on this.
Speak if you must of Rahab in Egypt,
And talk of your Babylon to those who know me;
We may contemplate Philistia and Tyre,
And Ethiopia’s glory,
And brag of those men who were born in such places.
But we come back to Zion,
And the man who was graced
To be born in that city.
The highest heaven
And God most high,
Establishes her.
The Lord does the reckoning,
He goes through the census;
He labors in the genealogies,
And triumphantly says,
    This man was born in Zion.
We rest in this, and meditate.
Every member of the choir was born here as well,
And all those who play in the orchestra.
Our worship of God is an artesian well,
All our springs are in Him,
And flow to Him,
In the great congregation—
More than in our private times.
And so, gracious Father, we worship You now through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end, amen.