LOrd God that dost me save and keep,
All day to thee I cry;
And all night long, before the weep
Before thee prostrate lie.
2 Into thy presence let my praier [ 5 ]
With sighs devout ascend;
And to my cries, that ceaseless are,
Thine ear with favour bend.
3 For cloy'd with woes and trouble store
Surcharg'd my Soul doth lie, [ 10 ]
My life at deaths uncherful dore
Unto the grave draws nigh.
4 Reck'n'd I am with them that pass
Down to the dismal pit;
I am a * man, but weak alas [ 15 ]
And for that name unfit.
5 From life discharg'd and parted quite
Among the dead to sleep,
And like the slain in bloody fight
That in the grave lie deep. [ 20 ]
Whom thou rememberest no more,
Dost never more regard,
Them from thy hand deliver'd o're
Deaths hideous house hath barr'd.
6 Thou in the lowest pit profound [ 25 ]
Hast set me all forlorn,
Where thickest darkness hovers round,
In horrid deeps to mourn.
7 Thy wrath from which no shelter saves
Full sore doth press on me; [ 30 ]
* Thou break'st upon me all thy waves,
* And all thy waves break me.
8 Thou dost my friends from me estrange,
And mak'st me odious,
Me to them odious, for they change, [ 35 ]
And I here pent up thus.
9 Through sorrow, and affliction great
Mine eye grows dim and dead,
Lord all the day I thee entreat,
My hands to thee I spread. [ 40 ]
10 Wilt thou do wonders on the dead,
Shall the deceas'd arise
And praise thee from their loathsom bed
With pale and hollow eyes?
11 Shall they thy loving kindness tell [ 45 ]
On whom the grave hath hold,
Or they who in perdition dwell
Thy faithfulness unfold?
12 In darkness can thy mighty hand
Or wondrous acts be known, [ 50 ]
Thy justice in the gloomy land
Of dark oblivion?
13 But I to thee O Lord do cry
E're yet my life be spent,
And up to thee my praier doth hie [ 55 ]
Each morn, and thee prevent.
14 Why wilt thou Lord my soul forsake,
And hide thy face from me,
15 That am already bruis'd, and † shake
With terror sent from thee; [ 60 ]
Bruz'd, and afflicted and so low
As ready to expire,
While I thy terrors undergo
Astonish'd with thine ire.
16 Thy fierce wrath over me doth flow [ 65 ]
Thy threatnings cut me through:
17 All day they round about me go,
Like waves they me persue.
18 Lover and friend thou hast remov'd
And sever'd from me far. [ 70 ]
They fly me now whom I have lov'd,
And as in darkness are.
F I N I S.