To be in Your Presence - My Desire

This is a gentle, reflective worship song, about the desire to be in God's presence. It doesn't explicitly refer to Jesus's visit to Mary and Martha, but does describe Mary's action, namely sitting at Jesus' feet.

The song was written by Welsh singer-songwriter, contemporary Christian music worship leader, and recording artist Noel Richards (b. 1955), and first published by Thankyou Music, England in 1981.

Hymn books where it has been published since include:

21st Century Folk Hymnal, Kevin Mayhew Ltd, England, 1999
Complete Mission Praise, Marshall Pickering, London, England, 1999
Sing Glory: Hymns, Psalms and Songs for a New Century, Kevin Mayhew Ltd, Stowmarket, England, 1999
Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New, Kevin Mayhew Ltd, Suffolk, England, 2000
Worship Songs For The Church Choir Book 2, Kevin Mayhew Ltd, 2001
The Irish Presbyterian Hymnbook, Canterbury Press, Norwich, 2004
Anglican Hymns Old and New (Rev. and Enl.), Kevin Mayhew Ltd, England, 2008
Singing the Faith, Hymns Ancient & Modern for the Methodist Church, London, 2011

Sheet music for a brass ensemble has been located (link below), but not for guitar or vocal - one of the books listed above is the best source.

The song is set to an unnamed tune, also by Richards. This has a 4/4 time signature. In the key of D, the first few notes of the melody are A AGG F D_ E_ A AGG F D_ E_ with accompanying chords D / G / A / D / G / A.

Image adapted from A Garden on the island of Lindisfarne, © www.Godsongs.net - may be freely used for church purposes

Downloads

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Brass ensemble arrangement by Pete Cross

Examples

Singer with guitar

Acoustic home-recorded version by the song-writer

Keyboard-led worship band

Quartet with backing track

Lyric video

Instrumental - organ

Instrumental - piano-led. Professional recording

Lyrics

To be in your presence,
to sit at your feet,
where your love surrounds me,
and makes me complete:

Chorus:
This is my desire, O Lord,
this is my desire.
This is my desire, O Lord,
this is my desire.

To rest in your presence,
not rushing away,
to cherish each moment --
here I would stay.