Still mute remains the sullen tongue,
And Zion's song denies to sing?
2 Awake! thy loudest raptures raise;
Let harp and voice unite their strains ;
Thy promised King his sceptre sways,
Behold! thine own Messiah reigns.
3 Nor fear thy Salem's hills to wrong,
If other lands the triumph share;
A heavenly city claims thy song;
A brighter Salem rises there.
4. By foreign streams no longer roam,
Nor weeping, think of Jordan's flood
In every clime behold a home;
In every temple see thy God.
5 No taunting foes the song require,
No strangers mock thy captive chain;
Thy friends provoke the silent lyre,
And brethren ask the holy strain.
6 Then why, on bending willows hung,
Israel! still sleeps the tuneful string?
Why mute remains the sullen tongue,
And Zion's song delays to sing?
PSALM 137.
(L. M. PANCRAS.)
The Christian comforted in the prospect of heaven.
Zion! when we think on Thee,
We long for pinions like the dove,
And mourn to think that we should be
So distant from the land we love.
2 While here, we walk on hostile ground; The few that we can call our friends, Are, like ourselves, with fetters bound, And weariness our steps attends. 3 But yet we hope to see the day,
When Zion's children shall return, When all our griefs shall pass away, And we no more again shall mourn. 4 The thought that such a day will come, Makes e'en the captive's portion sweet; Though now we wander far from home, In Zion soon we all shall meet.
PSALM 139.
(C. M. MANCHESTER.)
The omnipresence of God.
1 FROM thine all-seeing Spirit, Lord!
Oh! whither shall we flee?
If we ascend the highest heavens,
The heavens are full of Thee.
2 If down to hell's profoundest depths
Our hastening feet descend,
Thy piercing eyes in fiery wrath
Our footsteps there attend.
3 If, on the morning-wing upborne,
We seek the ocean's bound,
There, swifter than the morning-wing,
Thy guiding hand is found.
4 Or if, to shroud us from thy view,
We veil ourselves in night,
Thou, to whom darkness is as day,
Behold'st us all in light.
5 To screen from wrath a guilty race,
Since darkness nought avails,
Nor earth, nor sea, nor heaven, nor hell,—
Lo! Jesus never fails.
6 In Jesus, reconciled, O God!
Who would thy presence flee?
For whom on earth can we desire,
Or whom in heaven, but Thee?
PSALM 139.
(C. M. DUBLIN.)
The goodness of God in providence and grace.
1 ALMIGHTY Father! gracious Lord!
Kind Guardian of our days!
Thy mercies let our hearts record,
In songs of grateful praise.
2 In life's first dawn, our tender frame.
Was thine indulgent care,
Long ere we could pronounce thy name,
Or breathe the infant prayer.
3 Each passing hour new favours brought
From thine exhaustless store;
But ah! in vain our labouring thought..
Would count thy mercies o'er.
4 While sweet reflection through our days
Thy bounteous hand would trace,
Still richer blessings claim our praise!
The blessings of thy grace.
5 What thanks we owe for all thy love, (A boundless, endless, store!)
Shall sound throughout the realms above,
When time shall be no more.
9 Then, in far nobler, sweeter lays,
We'll sing thy power to save;
While this poor mortal frame decays
Within the silent grave.
PSALM 145.
(L. M. MARTIN'S LANE.)
God righteous and holy.
1 IN all the ways and works of God,
His justice and his love we trace ;
We bend beneath his vengeful rod,
Or kiss the sceptre of his grace.
2 On those who humbly seek his face,
He, ever faithful, ever near,
Pours freely down his heavenly grace,
As strong to save, as swift to hear.
3 Around his saints, who fear his name,
In endless streams his mercies flow;
But ah! the fruits of sin are shame,
And present grief, and future woe.
4 Let sinners fear, let saints rejoice;
Let all adore their common Lord;
And saved by grace, exalt their voice,
To sound his praise with one accord.
PSALM 146.
The man happy who trusts in God. 1 HAPPY the man, whose hopes rely On Israel's God, who made the sky,
And earth and seas with all their train: He saves the oppress'd; He feeds the poor; His truth for ever stands secure,
And none shall find his promise vain. 2 The Lord gives eye-sight to the blind; The Lord relieves the guilty mind;
The Lord vouchsafes the mourner peace; He helps the stranger in distress, The widow and the fatherless;
And grants the prisoner sweet release. 3 We'll praise Him, while he gives us breath, And when our voice is lost in death, Praise shall employ our nobler powers; Our day of praise shall ne'er be past, While life, and thought, and being last, Or immortality endures.
PSALM 148.
(P. M. DARWELL.)
God worthy of universal praise.
1 YE boundless realms of joy,
Exalt your Maker's name:
In praise your songs employ
Above the starry frame:
Your voices raise.
Ye Cherubim,
And Seraphim,
To sing his praise.
2 Thou moon, the queen of night,
Thou sun, the orb of day,
Ye glittering stars of light,
To Him your homage pay:
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