Our eyes, great God, have seen Thy grace

The hymn "Our eyes, great God, have seen Thy grace" is a metrical version of Psalm 85 composed by the English poet and scholar James Merrick. It was first published in his 1765 volume, The Psalms Translated or Paraphrased in English Verse. Merrick's initial versions were written as continuous poetry rather than divided stanzas, which made them difficult for congregations to sing during worship services.

To make the work practical for church use, the Reverend William Dechair Tattersall edited and republished Merrick's work in 1797. In this updated edition, Tattersall divided each paraphrase into regular stanzas specifically designed for parochial singing.

Over the years, the text was modified by various editors to fit the needs of different congregations. In 1812, Dr. William Bengo Collyer selected six stanzas from the paraphrase for his collection, altering the opening line to read "Arise, great God, and let Thy grace." This variant became quite popular and was repeated in several later hymn books. In some collections, the opening line was altered slightly further to read "Arise, O God, and let Thy grace."