Who Can Resist the Almighty Arm

1 Who can resist th’ Almighty arm
that made the starry sky?
or who elude the certain glance
of God’s all-seeing eye?
2 From him no cov’ring vails our crimes;
hell opens to his sight;
and all Destruction’s secret snares
lie full disclos'd in light.

3 Firm on the boundless void of space
he pois'd the steady pole,
and in the circle of his clouds
bade secret waters roll.
4 While nature’s universal frame
its Maker’s pow'r reveals,
his throne, remote from mortal eyes
an awful cloud conceals.

5 From where the rising day ascends,
to where it sets in night,
he compasses the floods with bounds,
and checks their threat’ning might.
6 The pillars that support the sky
tremble at his rebuke;
through all its caverns quakes the earth,
as though its centre shook.

7 He brings the waters from their beds,
although no tempest blows,
and smites the kingdom of the proud
without the hand of foes.
8 With bright inhabitants above
he fills the heav'nly land,
and all the crooked serpent’s breed
dismay'd before him stand.

9 Few of his works can we survey;
these few our skill transcend:
but the full thunder of his pow’r
what heart can comprehend?


Source: The Irish Presbyterian Hymnbook #R9