God's on our side, and God will grieve

1 God's on our side, and God will grieve
at carnage, loss and death;
for Jesus wept, and we will weep
with every grieving breath. 

2 God's on their side, the enemy,
the ones we would despise;
God quench our vengeance, still our pride,
don't let our anger rise.

3 God's on each side, God loves us all,
and through our hurt and pain
God shares the anguish, nail scarred hands
reach out love must remain.

4 God show us how to reconcile
each difference and fear,
that we might learn to love again
and dry the other's tear.

Words: Andrew E Pratt (born 1948) © 2001 Stainer and Bell Ltd., please include any use on your CCL Licence return or contact Stainer & Bell via www.stainer.co.uk. Administered in the USA by Hope Publishing.

Metre: 86.86. (Common Metre)

Suggested tunes: Amazing Grace (StF 440); Dunfermline (StF 9); Richmond (StF 155ii); St Columba (Erin) (StF 155i)

Written in 2001 within 24 hours of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and other locations in the United States. To read Andrew's comments about writing the hymn, go to his hymnsandbooks blog.