LYRICS
| Meter: | 8 6 8 6 (C.M.)
| | Writer(s): | Nicholas Brady & Nahum Tate
| | Transl/Adapt: |
| | Dates: | 1696
| | Bible Refs: | Ps 35:11-17
| A New Version of the Psalms of David
| 1821
| 35
|
| 1. False witnesses, with forged complaints,
against my truth combined;
And to my charge such things they laid
as I had ne'er designed.
2. The good which I to them had done,
with evil they repaid;
And did, by malice undeserved,
my harmless life invade.
3. But as for me, when they were sick,
I still in sackcloth mourned;
I prayed and fasted, and my prayer
to my own breast returned,
4. Had they my friends or brethren been,
I could have done no more,
Nor with more decent signs of grief
a mother's loss deplore.
5. How diff'rent did their carriage prove
in times of my distress;
When they, in crowds together met,
did savage joy express.
6. The rabble too, in num'rous throngs,
by their example came,
And ceased not, with reviling words,
to wound my spotless fame.
7. Scoffers, that noble tables haunt,
and earn their bread with lies,
Did gnash their teeth, and sland'ring jests
maliciously devise.
8. But, Lord, how long wilt thou look on?
On my behalf appear:
And save my guiltless soul, which they,
like rav'ning beasts, would tear.
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