LYRICS
| Meter: | 8 6 8 6 (C.M.)
| | Writer(s): | Nicholas Brady & Nahum Tate
| | Transl/Adapt: |
| | Dates: | 1696
| | Bible Refs: | Ps 17:8-16
| A New Version of the Psalms of David
| 1821
| 17
|
| 1. O! keep me in thy tend'rest care;
thy shelt'ring wings stretch out,
To guard me safe from savage foes,
that compass me about.
2. O'ergrown with luxury, enclosed
in their own fat they lie;
And with a proud blaspheming mouth
both God and man defy.
3. Well may they boast, for they have now
my paths encompassed round;
Their eyes at watch, their bodies bowed,
and crouching on the ground,
4. In posture of a lion set,
when greedy of his prey;
Or a young lion, when he lurks
within a covert way.
5. Arise, O Lord, defeat their plots,
their swelling rage control;
From wicked men, who are thy sword,
deliver thou my soul.
6. From worldly men, thy sharpest scourge,
whose portion's here below;
Who, filled with earthly stores, desire
no other bliss to know.
7. Their race is num'rous that partake
their substance while they live:
Their heirs survive, to whom they may
the vast remainder give.
8. But I, in uprightness, thy face
shall view without control;
And, waking, shall its image find
reflected in my soul.
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