Classic Poem

Have three and sixty years now vanished
Forever from my life?
Have I experienced this past year
Especial hardship, trouble, need and strife?
Then God has strengthened, in some strange way,
My heart in sadness and in pain.
If one should wish to sentence me,
Help, O Rock Immanuel!
If o'er my head the staff be broken,
Oh then fleeth my poor soul
To Thee, in Thy fortress strong
As Thy ally, poor and needy.