As pants the hart to taste the limpid flood

1 AS pants the hart to taste the limpid flood,
So longs my thirsty soul for thee, O God.
2 O shall I ne'er behold the happy day,
When in thy house I shall again be gay?
3 No food but tears my weaken'd system knows,
While still I bear the insults of my foes.
4 And yet this glad reflection sooths my mind,
In this blest thought I consolation find;
The time will come, when with the pious throng
Thy house I'll visit, and make thee my song;
When there I shall thy glorious works display,
And keep in solemn pomp the festal day.
5 Why then, my soul, so dreadfully dismay'd?
Why thee such sad distracting griefs invade?
Dismiss thy fears, and on thy God rely;
E'en yet shalt thou return with victory;
Yet with his pow'r thy cause will he support,
And thou shalt praise him in his awful court,
6 My joy, my only solace this, when I,
O Jordan, in thy forests skulking lie;
When, Herman, I thy rocky desarts trace,
And roam, an exile, with the bestial race.
7 What tho' misfortunes on misfortunes tread,
Tho' heav'n's dread terrors thunder o'er my head,
Tho' pours the rattling hail, the billows roar,
And the big sounding waters dam the shore;
8 If still, O God, thy mercies thou'lt display,
Soon will each lowering cloud disperse away.
Mean while, I'll in thy praise employ my tongue,
And now put up a pray'r, now chant a song;
By day, by night, me shall thy truth sustain;
9 My God I'll call thee, gently I'll complain;
With these expostulations sooth my woes;
"Why am I made a may-game to my foes?
"Why has my God forgot me? Will no more
"Thy mercy aid, when prostrate I implore?
10 "Hear how with shouts my ears the impious wound;
"How they their vile reproaches scatter round;
"O hear them vent their blasphemies abroad,
"And cry, insulting, Where is now thy God?"
11 But why, my soul, so dreadfully dismay'd?
Why thee such sad distracting griefs invade?
Dismiss thy fears, and on thy God rely;
E'en yet shalt thou return with victory;
Yet with his pow'r thy cause will he support,
And still thou'lt praise him in his sacred court.


Source: New Version of the Psalms of David #XLII