I'll be the God of Jesus' seed,
And they shall be my sons.
2 If saints offend, the chast'ning rod,
Shall make my children smart;
But I'll not cease to be their God,
Nor from my truth depart.
3 My covenant I will ne'er revoke,
But keep my grace in mind;
And what my love eternal spoke,
Eternal truth shall bind.
4 Once have I sworn, the solemn oath
Shall firm as heaven endure,
The covenant stands betwixt us both,
And every word is sure.
5 The sun shall see his offspring rise,
And spread from clime to clime,
Long as he drives around the skies
The rolling wheels of time.
Sure as the moon that rules the night,
His seed on earth shall last,
Till the fixt laws of shade and light
Shall be for ever past.
PSALM 89. As the 113.
Life, death and the resurrection.
1 THINK, mighty God, on feeble man,
How few his hours, how short his span.
Short from the cradle to the grave;
Who can secure his vital breath,
Against the bold demands of death,
With skill to fly, or power to save?
2 Must death for ever man invade,
Or was the race of mortals made
For sickness, sorrow and the dust?
Are not thy servants day by day,
Sent to their graves and turn'd to clay?
Lord, where 's thy kindness to the just?
3 How long, O Lord, wilt thou forbear,
Shall death his prey for ever tear,
Nor at thy dreadful presence fly?
When shall thine hand redeem his prey,
And all thy shouting saints convey,
To happier realms above the sky?
4 To God, my soul, for comfort look,
Tis written in his sacred book,
The grave his prisoners must restore;
Cease, every murmuring passion, cease,
When Jesus gives his saints release,
They live with God to die no more.
5 Jesus, we bless thine holy name,
Twas by thy blood the saints o'ercame,
An heir'd an everlasting crown;
Ye saints below, and saints above,
Join all to sing the Savior's love,
Amen: come Jesus quickly down.
PSALM 90. Part 1. L. M.
Man mortal and God eternal.
1 LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place, The rest and refuge of our race,
Thy name from generations past,
To generations yet shall last.
2 Before thou gav'st the mountains birth,
Or ever thou hadst form'd the earth,
Or heaven was built, or hell was made,
Thou didst immensity pervade.
3 Long hadst thou reign'd ere time began,
Or earth was fashion'd into man;
And long thy kingdom shall exist,
When earth shall disappear like mist.
4 But man's weak frame is slightly built,
Made of red earth and stain'd with guilt,
Thy dreadful sentence, Lord, is just, "Return, ye sinners, to your dust.' 5 A thousand years of man amount To scarce a day in thine account, They seem like yesterday when past, They come so soon and fly so fast, 6 Millions of ages in thy sight,
Are like the watch that ends the night, As idle dreams they haste away Before the swift approaching day. 7 Eternal God, who wast and art, Be thou the portion of mine heart, Let all my thoughts be fixt in thee, Who wast, and art, and art to be.
PSALM 90. Part 2. L. M.
Untimely death bewailed.
1 DEATH like an overflowing stream,
Sweeps us away as in a dream,
The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
Are carried downward with the flood.
2 Our fleeting moments swiftly pass,
The race of man is surely grass,
The scythe of time with ample powers,
Cuts and destroys the morning flowers.
3 With piercing groans and sorrows mixt,
Our age at seventy years is fixt,
And if till eighty death delay,
We soon depart and haste away.
4 But, O! how oft the foe appears,
And cuts off our expected years;
Infants and blooming youth are lost,
Like tender buds by killing frost.
5 Teach us, O Lord, how frail is man,
And kindly lengthen out our span;
We would our hearts to grace apply,
And count our moments as they fly.
6 Before we take our last remove,
May we the term of life improve;
And well prepar'd' to take our flight,
Receive us, Lord, to worlds of light.
PSALM 90. Part 1. C. M.
Man frail and God eternal.
1 O GOD, our help in ages past,
Our rest, our dwelling place,
Defend us from the stormy blast,
And save us by thy grace.
2 Before the world receiv'd its frame,
Or suns or stars had shone,
Jehovah was thy living name,
Immensity thy throne.
3 A thousand years are in thy sight
As one short evening run,
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the morning sun.
4 If but thy slightest anger burn,
All nature feels the pain,
To swift destruction men return,
And mix with earth again.
5 Nations regardless of thy frown,
Like grass revive and grow,
Till death the mower cuts them down,
And lays their glory low.
6 Time, like an overflowing stream,
Bears all its sons away,
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Flies at the dawing day.
Immensity, boundless space.
7 O God, our help in ages past,
Our rest, our dwelling place,
Defend us from the stormy blast,
And save us by thy grace.
PSALM 90. Part 2. C. M.
Death the effect of sin. ›
1 THE Lord in wrath consumes our race,
And fills our hearts with fear;
Our secret sins before his face
In all their guilt appear.
2 As vernal flowers are nipt by frost,
So death our race destroys;
Adam and all his sons have lost
Their right to 'immortal joys.
3 Life like a vain amusement flies,
Our days are but a song,
By swift degrees our nature dies,
Nor can our time prolong.
4 Their seventy years but few surmount, While millions die in prime;
And all beyond that short account,
Is but the dregs of time.
5 Our vitals with laborious strife
Support the tottering load,
And drag the last remains of life,
Along the tiresome road.-
6 Eternal King, thy love reveal,
And not thy wrath alone,
Condemn'd to death, our pardon seal,
And send it from thy throne.
7 Our souls would learn the heavenly art, Our better life to save,
That we may act the wiser part,
And live beyond the grave.
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