Paraphrase (Isaac Watts, 1719)
English text
PART ONE
Thee will I love, O Lord, my strength,
My rock, my tower, my high defense:
Thy mighty arm shall be my trust,
For I have found salvation thence.
Death, and the terrors of the grave,
Stood round me with their dismal shade;
While floods of high temptations rose,
And made my sinking soul afraid.
I saw the opening gates of hell,
With endless pains and sorrows there,
Which none but they that feel can tell;
While I was hurried to despair.
In my distress I called my God,
When I could scarce believe him mine:
He bowed his ear to my complaint,
Then did his grace appear divine.
With speed he flew to my relief,
As on a cherub's wing he rode;
Awful and bright as lightning shone
The face of my deliverer, God.
Temptations fled at his rebuke,
The blast of his almighty breath;
He sent salvation from on high,
And drew me from the deeps of death.
Great were my fears, my foes were great,
Much was their strength, and more their rage;
But Christ, my Lord, is conqueror still,
In all the wars that devils wage.
My song for ever shall record
That terrible, that joyful hour;
And give the glory to the Lord,
Due to his mercy and his power.
PART TWO
Lord, thou hast seen my soul sincere,
Hast made thy truth and love appear;
Before mine eyes I set thy laws,
And thou hast owned my righteous cause.
Since I have learned thy holy ways,
I've walked upright before thy face;
Or if my feet did e'er depart,
'Twas never with a wicked heart.
What sore temptations broke my rest!
What wars and strugglings in my breast!
But through thy grace, that reigns within,
I guard against my darling sin:
That sin which close besets me still,
That works and strives against my will:
When shall thy Spirit's sovereign power
Destroy it, that it rise no more?
With an impartial hand, the Lord
Deals out to mortals their reward;
The kind and faithful souls shall find
A God as faithful and as kind.
The just and pure shall ever say,
Thou art more pure, more just than they;
And men that love revenge shall know
God hath an arm of vengeance too.
PART THREE
Just are thy ways, and true thy word,
Great Rock of my secure abode:
Who is a God beside the Lord?
Or where's a refuge like our God?
'Tis he that girds me with his might,
Gives me his holy sword to wield,
And while with sin and hell I fight,
Spreads his salvation for my shield.
He lives, and blessed be my Rock!
The God of my salvation lives:
The dark designs of hell are broke;
Sweet is the peace my Father gives.
Before the scoffers of the age
I will exalt my Father's name,
Nor tremble at their mighty rage,
But meet reproach, and bear the shame.
To David and his royal seed
Thy grace for ever shall extend;
Thy love to saints in Christ their Head
Knows not a limit, nor an end.
|
SECOND PART 1 (C. M.)
Victory and triumph over temporal enemies
We love thee, Lord, and we adore;
Now is thine arm revealed:
Thou art our strength, our heavenly tower,
Our bulwark, and our shield.
We fly to our eternal Rock,
And find a sure defense;
His holy name our lips invoke,
And draw salvation thence.
When God, our Leader, shines in arms,
What mortal heart can bear
The thunder of his loud alarms,
The lightning of his spear?
He rides upon the winged wind,
And angels in array
In millions wait to know his mind,
And swift as flames obey.
He speaks, and at his fierce rebuke
Whole armies are dismayed;
His voice, his frown, his angry look,
Strikes all their courage dead.
He forms our generals for the field,
With all their dreadful skill;
Gives them his awful sword to wield,
And makes their hearts of steel.
He arms our captains to the fight,
(Though there his name's forgot;
He girded Cyrus with his might,
But Cyrus knew him not.
Oft has the Lord whole nations blessed
For his own church's sake;
The powers that give his people rest,
Shall of his care partake.
SECOND PART 2 (C. M.)
The conqueror's Song
To thine almighty arm we owe
The triumphs of the day;
Thy terrors, Lord, confound the foe,
And melt their strength away.
'Tis by thine aid our troops prevail,
And break united powers,
Or burn their boasted fleets, or scale
The proudest of their towers.
How have we chased them through the field,
And trod them to the ground,
While thy salvation was our shield,
But they no shelter found!
In vain to idol saints they cry,
And perish in their blood
Where is a rock so great, so high,
So powerful as our God?
The Rock of Israel ever lives,
His name be ever blest;
'Tis his own arm the victory gives,
And gives his people rest.
On kings that reign as David did,
He pours his blessings down;
Secures their honors to their seed,
And well supports the crown.
|
English text
1 Blest object of my soul's desire,
To thee my grateful thoughts aspire;
On thee my stedfast hope I build;
My God, my rest, my rock, my shield:
2 The strength of my salvation thee,
And tow'r of sure defence, I see;
Protected by thy pow'rful arm,
No danger can my soul alarm:
3 What foe shall e'er my terror raise,
While thus I pay my debt of praise,
And, as the doubtful field I tread,
To God my suppliant hands outspread?
4 Woes heap'd on woes my heart deplor'd,
While sin's tumultuous torrents roar'd,
And, spreading wide before my view,
Their gloomy horrors round me threw.
5 The sepulchre's extended hands
Had wrapt me in its strongest bands,
And Death, insulting, o'er my head
Th'inextricable toils had spread.
6 My words, as griev'd to God I pray,
Wing to his heav'nly fane their way,
Through adverse clouds their passage clear,
Nor unaccepted reach his ear;
7 With strong convulsions groan'd the ground,
The hills, with waving forests crown'd,
Loos'd from their base, their summits nod,
And own the presence of their God:
8 Collected clouds of wreathing smoke
Forth from his angry nostrils broke,
And orbs of fire, with dreadful glare,
Rush'd onward through the glowing air.
9 Incumbent on the bending sky
The Lord descended from on high,
And bade the darkness of the pole
Beneath his feet tremendous roll.
10 The cherub to his car he join'd,
And on the wings of mightiest wind,
As down to Earth his journey lay,
Resistless urg'd his rapid way.
11 Thick-woven clouds, around him clos'd,
His secret residence compos'd,
And waters high-suspended spread
Their dark pavilion o'er his head.
12 In vain reluctant to the blaze
That previous pour'd its streaming rays,
As on he moves, the clouds retire,
Dissolv'd in hail and rushing fire:
13 His voice th'almighty Monarch rear'd,
Through heav'n's high vault in thunders heard,
And down in fiercer conflict came
The hailstones dire and mingled flame.
14 With aim direct his shafts were sped,
In vain his foes before them fled;
Now here, now there, his lightnings stray,
And sure destruction marks their way:
15 Earth's basis open to the eye,
And ocean's springs, were seen to lie,
As, chiding loud, his fury past,
And o'er them breath'd the dreadful blast.
16 God in my rescue from the skies
His arm extends, and bids me rise
Emergent from the flood profound,
Whose waves my struggling soul surround,
17 His hand my strongest foes repell'd,
Their force by force superior quell 'd,
And I, unequal to the fight,
Ev'n I have triumph 'd in his might.
18 Oppress'd with languor, grief, and pain,
Ere yet my nerves their strength regain,
His fierce assault th'invader gave;
But thou wert present, Lord, to save:
19 My spacious path by thee outspread,
With course secure behold me tread;
From thee, when terrors clos'd me round,
My soul its fullest succour found.
20 Blest in the favour of my God,
I speak the grace on all bestow'd,
Who guiltless hands to him can raise,
And offer unpolluted praise.
21 His precepts, fix'd before my view,
My thoughts with stedfast aim pursue,
Nor error's cloud nor arts of sin
My soul from his obedience win.
22 Thou seest, eternal Judge, my breast
Each taint of inward guilt detest;
Thine eye my innocence surveys,
Thy pow'r with fullest bliss repays,
23 Thy ways to ours conform: in thee
The holy shall the holy see,
The pure the pure; the perfect mind
In thee perfection's self shall find:
24 Their arts the men of froward turn
Surpass'd by deeper art shall mourn,
While they their pow'rs with effort vain
Unite against the pious train.
25 By Thee their Guardian, ever nigh,
The poor are sav'd; the haughty eye,
Chastis'd by thy abiding stroke,
Bends to the earth its humbled look.
26 While night's thick shades around me stand,
My lamp, illumin'd by thy hand,
Pours through the gloom its steady ray,
And turns my darkness into day.
27 My arm, if thou thine aid supply,
Shall bid whole hosts before me fly ;
My feet, if thou my sinews string,
High o'er the wall exulting spring.
28 Author of good! nor sin, nor guile
The pureness of thy path defile;
On thy tried word who build their trust,
Shall find their confidence was just.
29 What God but Thee shall Israel know,
Or who, O who can save but thou ?
'Tis God that arms me for the fight,
'Tis God that girds my soul with might ;
30 Upheld by him, in air sublime,
Swift as the hind, the rock I climb,
Girded with strength, there fix my stand,
Safe from each proud invader's hand.
31 By him inform'd, with surest art
My hands direct the pointed dart,
And forceful break the steely bow,
New wrested from the struggling foe.
32 Thou, mightiest Lord, hast o'er my head
The shield of thy salvation spread;
Thee its defence my soul has found,
And gratefully thy succour own'd.
33 By thy right hand I walk'd upheld,
Great in thy mercy trod the field
With step enlarg'd, and, thou my guide,
Nor fear'd to fall, nor knew to slide.
34 With fierce pursuit my foes I press'd,
Beheld my spear their flight arrest,
Nor bade my sword its fury stay,
Till prostrate on the earth they lay.
35 They bow'd, they fell, distain'd with gore;
They bow'd, they fell, and rose no more:
My foes, beneath my feet o'erthrown,
The terrors of my hand have known.
36 Blest Lord! 'Twas thy resistless pow'r
That arm'd me for the dreadful hour,
Their backs expos'd to many a wound,
And stretch'd them breathless on the ground.
37 Aloud, oppress'd with horror, cried
The rebel throng; but none replied:
To God they call; but God their pray'r,
Abhorrent, scatters to the air.
38 Behold their troops before me chas'd,
As dust before the driving blast,
And trampled, as the yielding clay
Extended o'er the beaten way.
39 When factious crowds against me rose,
How prompt thy hand to interpose!
O'er realms, that have but heard my name,
Through thee the just command I claim;
40 The tribes, that from their God estrang'd
Through climes to me unknown had rang'd,
With flatt'ring lip their homage pay,
And trembling own a foreign sway.
41 In vain they seek themselves to hide
In walls and forts their strength and pride,
Each dreads my vengeance to sustain,
Nor walls nor forts their fears restrain.
42 Blest be the living God, whose aid,
When impious foes my peace invade,
Their rage instructs me to decline,
And makes his wish'd salvation mine;
43 His pow'r inflicts th'avenging stroke,
And bends the nations to my yoke,
Each force, that durst my reign contest,
By his resistless strength suppress'd.
44 For this, thy pow'r my song shall claim,
And distant regions hear thy fame,
Whose hands thy David to the throne
Have rais'd; whose oil his temples own.
45 Prosperity and fair success
His counsels and his arms shall bless,
Thy love on him and on his line
With unextinguish'd lustre shine.
|