While thou permit'st me, Lord, the light t' enjoy

1 While thou permit'st me, Lord, the light t' enjoy,
Thy praises shall my grateful tongue employ;
While o'er my limbs shall flow life's purple stream,
I'll make thy glory and thy pow'r my theme.
3 Consider all, how weak it is, how vain,
To trust in the most potent sons of men,
Even in those, whom mighty realms obey,
Lords of the earth, exulting in their sway!
4 Lo! soon their frail mortality they mourn;
Soon to their parent nothing they return;
And, when the icey hands of death assail,
Their deep-laid schemes, their wily counsels, fail.
5 But blest is he, who steadily relies
On that great God who rules above the skies;
Who fixes all his hopes on him alone,
Whom heav'n, whom earth, their great Jehovah own.
6 The heav'ns he made, the earth, the liquid main,
And all that heav'ns and earth and sea contain;
Firm is his truth, inviolate his word;
Ne'er from his gracious promise swerves the Lord.
7 When cruel tyrants humble souls oppress,
He hears their cry, and gives them swift redress;
He feeds the hungry, and the naked cloaths,
And on the captive liberty bellows.
8 The blind, the lame, from him soft pity find;
He gives the lame, to walk, to see, the blind:
The just, the righteous, his high favour prove,
The just, blest objects of his heav'nly love.
9 He the 'lorn widow and her babes befriends;
He the poor stranger in his path attends;
The guilty wretch he in his schemes appalls;
By his avenging thunder struck, he falls!
10 Therefore, while yon bright lamps illume the sky,
While yon gay sun his joyous light supply;
Our God on Sion's sacred hill shall reign,
And o'er the nations endless rule maintain,

Source: New Version of the Psalms of David #CXLVI