From my Youth up, may Israel say (Tate and Brady)

1 From my youth up, may Israel say,
they oft have me assailed,
reduced me oft to heavy straits,
but never quite prevailed.

2 They oft have ploughed my patient back
with furrows deep and long;
but our just GOD has broke the chains,
and rescued us from wrong.

3 Defeat, confusion, shameful rout,
be still the doom of those,
their righteous doom, who Zion hate,
and Zion's God oppose.

4 Like corn upon our houses' tops,
untimely let them fade,
which too much heat, and want of root,
has blasted in the blade,

5 Which in his arms no reaper takes,
but unregarded leaves;
nor binder thinks it worth his pains
to fold it into sheaves.

6 No traveller that passes by,
vouchsafes a minute's stop,
to give it one kind look, or crave
heav'n's blessing on the crop.

Source: Psalms and Hymns to the Living God #129