vv1-2 I’ll praise O Lord with heart and voice,
Your marvellous deeds proclaim;
I will be glad, in You rejoice,
And sing to Your great name.
v3 When all my foes are turned and fled,
They’ll fall and ne’er to rise;
They’ll perish at Your presence Lord,
And perish ne’er to rise.
v4 My right, my cause You have maintained,
Supported and upheld;
You in Your justice sat enthroned,
With justice undefiled.
v5 You have rebuked the heathen folk,
The wicked too, destroyed;
Their names You have forever struck,
You have their names removed.
v6 Destruction’s come my foe to thee,
Your cities razed too;
Forever gone, yes endlessly,
Erased from memory’s view.
vv7-8 The Lord He shall endure for aye,
His judgment He’s prepared;
In righteousness and from His throne,
This world it shall be judged.
vv9-10 The Lord’s a refuge for those in pain,
For those in troublous times;
That know and trust and seek Your name,
The Lord He ne’er forsakes.
v11 Sing praises to the Lord, O sing,
Who dwell in Zion’s hill;
Declare you folk what He is doing,
Who does on Zion dwell.
v12 When He for bloodshed does avenge,
The humble cry He hears;
He does recall and takes revenge,
Their cries He ne’er forgets.
v13 Have mercy upon me O Lord,
From them that hate and loathe;
Me in my troubles look upon;
Deliver me from death.
v14 That I Your praise I may declare,
In Zion’s gates may praise;
Show forth Your saving grace and power,
And in it do rejoice.
v15 The heathen sunk in their own-dug trap,
In pits themselves they made;
Caught in their net, into they step,
Which they themselves have laid.
v16 The Lord He’s known by judgments which,
That He Himself inflicts;
But wicked men fall into the ditch,
Which they have set themselves.
v17 The wicked and the nations who,
Those that forget the Lord;
Cast into hell, yes all who do,
Those that forget the Lord.
vv18-19 The needy shall not be forgotten,
Nor poor mens hopes be dashed;
Arise O Lord and let the heathen,
In Thy sight Lord be judged.
v20 Put them in fear, O Lord in fear,
So every nation knows;
That they themselves are all but men;
So every nation knows.
(Tune: Belmont; Effingham: CM)
(© James R. Hamilton, written, Saturday, 3rd, April, 2005)
