4 Thus shall the vengeance of the Lord Safety and joy to saints afford; And all that hear shall join and say— “Sure there’s a God that rules on high, A God that hears his children cry, And will their sufferings well repay.”
1260 L. M. 6 lines. Let the wickedness of the wicked, etc. Psalm 7:9.
Our earth we now lament to see With floods of wickedness o’erflowed, With violence, wrong, and cruelty, One wide-extended field of blood, Where men like fiends each other tear In all the hellish rage of war.
2 O might the universal Friend This havoc of his creatures see; Bid our unnatural discord end, Declare us reconciled in thee; Write kindness on our inward parts, And chase the murderer from our hearts!
1261 C. M. During a pestilence.
Let the land mourn through all its coasts! And humble all its state; Princes and rulers, at their posts, Awhile sit desolate.
2 Let all the people, high and low, Rich, poor, and great and small, Invoke, in fellowship of woe, The Maker of them all.
3 For God hath summoned from his place, Death, in a direr form, To waken, warn, and scourge our race, Than earthquakes, fire, or storm.
4 Let churches weep within their pale, And families apart; Let each in secrecy bewail The plague of his own heart.
5 So while the land bemoans its sin, The pestilence may cease, And mercy, tempering wrath, bring in God’s blesséd health and peace.
1262 C. M. He is a God that judgeth in the earth. Psalm 58:11.
Lord, Lord, defend the desolate, And rescue from the hands Of wicked men the low estate, Of him that help demands.
2 Visit the weak and fatherless, Defend the poor man’s cause, And raise the man in deep distress By just and equal laws.
3 Yea, Lord, judge thou the world in might, The wrongs of earth redress; For thou art he who shall by right, The nations all possess.
1263 C. M. Turn us again, O God of hosts. Psalm 80:7.
See, gracious God, before thy throne Thy mourning people bend; ’Tis on thy sovereign grace alone Our humble hopes depend.
2 Dark, frowning judgments from thy hand, Thy dreadful powers display; Yet mercy spares this guilty land, And still we live to pray.
3 O, turn us, turn us, mighty Lord, By thy convincing grace; Then shall our hearts obey thy word, And humbly seek thy face.
1264 C. M. The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble. Psalm 99:1.
High as the heavens above the ground, Reigns the Creator, God: Wide as the whole creation’s bound, Extends his awful rod.
2 Let princes of exalted state, To him ascribe their crown, Render their homage at his feet, And cast their glories down.
3 Know that his kingdom is supreme, Your lofty thoughts are vain; He calls you gods, that awful name, But ye must die like men.
4 Then let the sovereigns of the globe, Not dare to vex the Just; He puts on vengeance like a robe, And treads the worms to dust.
5 Ye judges of the earth, be wise, And think of heaven with fear; The meanest saint that you despise Has an avenger there.
1265 C. M. Our land.
Lord, while for all mankind we pray, Of every clime and coast, O hear us for our native land— The land we love the most.
2 O guard our shores from every foe, With peace our borders bless, With prosperous times our cities crown, Our fields with plenteousness.
3 Unite us in the sacred love Of knowledge, truth, and thee; And let our hills and valleys shout The songs of liberty.
4 Lord of the nations, thus to thee Our country we commend; Be thou her refuge and her trust, Her everlasting friend.
1266 C. M. Gen. 18:23.
Thus Abraham, full of sacred awe, Before Jehovah stood, And with a humble, fervent prayer, For guilty Sodom sued.
2 And could a single holy soul So rich a boon obtain? Great God! and shall a nation pray, And plead with thee in vain?
3 Still we are thine; we bear thy name; Here yet is thine abode; Long has thy presence blessed our land; Forsake us not, O God!