Classic Poem

The Song

A City of exceeding strength
Doth henceforth unto us belong,
And the decreed salvation shall
Like walls and bulwarks keep it strong.

Set open then the city gates,
That so the righteous nation
That keeps the truths, may enter in
And of it take possession.

In perfect peace thou wilt him keep
Whose thoughtful mind is one thee stay'd,
And that because his confidence
On thee alone is ever lay'd.

Put then your trust upon the Lord
Throughout eternal ages length:
Because the Lord Jehovah is
A Rock of everlasting strength.

For he brought down high seated ones,
The haughty city he laid low,
He laid it level with the ground,
And it into the dust did throw.

The feet of the afflicted man
Triumphing trampled it upon,
And it ly'th prostrate under foot,
Foot of the poor and needy one.

Uprightness is the Kings high way,
The very road the just did take:
The path way of the righteous man
Thou didst for him most even make.

Moreover in thy judgments way
Thee, Lord, we longing look't to see:
Our souls desire was to thy name,
And to the memory of thee.

In evening and in morning prayer
My soul thee earnestly desir'd;
Yea with my spirit in midst of me
I day and night for thee enquir'd.
For when thy judgments are display'd
On earth, the worlds inhabitants,
Will lay to heart thy righteous works,
And learn the righteousness of saints.

Though for a wicked man there should
Bowels of divine pity yearn,
Yet he the way of righteousness
By no means will be brought to learn:
In land of righteousness he will
Still work perverse iniquity,
He will not well consider of
Jehovah's glorious majesty.

Lord, when thine hand was lifted up
In exhaltation very high,
Lest they should see thine hand, they did
Perversely turn away their eye.
But they with blushing shame, shall see
The zeal thou for thy people hast,
And the consuming fire that shall
Thine adversaries wholly wast.

Jehovah, thou for ever wilt
Safety and peace for us ordain:
For our affairs thou manage didst
And for us all our works maintain.

O Lord our God, thou only art
Our Lord, yet others besides thee
Have lorded it, and over us
Have exercised tyranny:
But notwithstanding henceforth we
No other lord, save thee will take,
And of no other name but thine
From this time will we mention make.

Those that opprest us now are dead,
So dead that they shall live no more,
Their ghosts from hence departed are,
And none shall them to life restore.
Because thou hast them visited,
And them hast utterly destroy'd.
For ever they are perished
And of all memory made void.

Jehovah thou the nation
Hast very much increast, increast
Hast thou the nation very much,
Thy glory is made manifest;

That nation which thou hadst remov'd,
And far away didst send it forth
By dissipating it unto
The utmost ends of all the earth.

O Lord, when they were in distress
They did thee visit with their cryes,
And secret prayer they poured out,
When as thou diddest them chastize.

Like as a pregnant woman when
Approaching child-birth comes apace
Is pain'd, and in her pangs cry's out,
So were we Lord before thy face.

We have conceiv'd & have been pain'd,
We have as it were brought forth wind,
The worlds inhabitants fell not
On earth no safety we could find.

Thy dead shall surely live again,
With my dead corps arise they must;
Awake out of the sleep of death
And sing ye who dwell in the dust:
Because the dew that falls on thee
Is like the dew that makes herbs grow
And down from hence with violence
The earth the Rephaims shall throw.

Come then, my people, enter in
To chambers that most secret are,
And after thee, shut thou the doors
And fasten them with utmost care:
There do thou hide thy self a while,
It will but as a moment be,
And all the indignation will
Be wholly passed over thee.

Behold the Lord is coming forth
Out of his habitation
To punish their iniquity
The earths inhabitants upon.
The earth shall then disclose and show
The bloods in her lay buried;
Her slain shall be expos'd to view
And be no longer covered.