University of Virginia Library

PSALM LXVIII.

Let God arise, while, all in dire Dismay,
His impious Foes shall fly, dispers'd away;
So let them fly before, a routed Host,
As curling Smoak in fluid Air is lost:
As pliant Wax is liquify'd by Fire,
So let the Guilty waste in God's avenging Ire.
Ye pious Votaries! let grateful Joy
Dilate your Breast, and all your Pow'rs employ:
Attune your Voice to celebrate his Fame,
Who rides aloft on yon celestial Frame;
Rejoice in Jah, his venerable Name.
The Orphan Babes in him a Father know;
And he relieves the Widow'd Matron's Woe:
Impartial Judge! he vindicates her Cause,
And from his sacred Seat asserts his Laws.
The solitary Train he knows to bind
In mutual Tyes, and Unity of Mind:
The Captive he delivers from his Chain,
And leads him forth to Liberty again;
But dooms the curs'd Apostate to remain
In Thirst and Famine on a sandy Plain.
When thou, O God! all radiant at our Head,
Didst thro' the pathless Wild thy People lead,
Earth shook beneath; distill'd the sable Show'r
From Heav'n above, before th' approaching Pow'r:
Ev'n Sinai trembl'd on his solid Base,
Before the God, the God of Israel's Race.
Thou pour'st the plenteous Stores of timely Rain
To chear the thirsty Glebe of thy Domain:
Thy own peculiar People there resides;
And there thy Bounty for the Poor provides.
He spake; a numerous Train attends the Word,
And loud proclaims the Dictates of the Lord.
The Kings and Captains fled in Haste away:
While Women and Domestics share the Prey.
Ye who so late, in deep Dejection spread
Among the sully'd Caldrons made your Bed,
Shall yet arise, fair as the Wings that fold
The silver Dove, whose Plumes are ray'd with Gold.
When Kings for you th' Almighty put to Flight,
Not Snow on Salmon was more lovely white.
The Hill of God like Basan's Hill ascends,
High as the Hill which Basan's Verge defends:
Why leap you thus, ye Hills? on this alone
The Lord has fix'd his Mansion and his Throne.
Him twice ten thousand Chariots in Array,
The bright angelic Myriads him obey:
Presides the Sov'reign, as of old he shin'd,
On Sinai's Summit in the Blaze enshrin'd.
While thou to Heav'n in Triumph dost arise,
Thy rescu'd Captives wait thee to the Skies:
The Tribute pay'd to thee, thou dost bestow
In Bounties to Mankind and ev'n thy Foe;
That God may dwell with Mortals here below.
Bless'd be the Pow'r, whose Goodness ev'ry Day
Does needful Aid and Benefits convey:
The God on whom we for Salvation wait;
And who commands the Avenues of Fate.
He on their Head his Enemies shall wound;
Deep on their Head with flowing Tresses crown'd:
Such is their Doom, who on the guilty Way
Proceeding farther more from Virtue stray.
Thus spoke the Lord. My own selected Train
Again I guide from Basan's fertile Plain;
Again from deep Recesses of the Main.
To purple o'er thy Feet with hostile Blood,
While thy insatiate Dogs shall lap the sanguine Flood.
My Sov'reign Lord! what Majesty Divine
Attends thy regal Progress to thy Shrine:
The venerable Priests, a vocal Choir,
Precede, behind resounds the solemn Lyre;
Fair Virgins march amid the pious Throng,
And with the lively Timbrel raise the Song.
To God, assembled Tribes! your Praises sing,
Sincerely flowing from the vital Spring.
There waits the rev'rend Patriarch's youngest born,
And Chiefs which his diminish'd Race adorn;
There Juda, destin'd to a nobler Fate,
In Synod first, and first in princely State.
While Zebulon and Nephthali forsake
The Borders of their Sea resembling Lake.
O Author of our Force! by thy Decree
Confirm the Work which was begun by thee.
Led by thy Fame, to Solyma's high Dome
Suppliant shall tributary Monarchs come.
Break thou the Spear, and prostrate on the Ground
The Masters of the Herd for Strength renown'd;
Till each his Pride, and all his Rage resign,
With wealthy Presents from the silver Mine:
So scatter thou the Bands, whose dire Delight
Is in the Waste of Rapine and of Fight.
Then Princes shall attend from Ægypt's Sands:
To God shall Æthiopia lift her Hands.
With early Zeal ye various Nations join,
And with united Voice extol the Pow'r Divine.
He on his glorious Chariot rides on high,
On the primæval Empyrean Sky:
Hark! how he speaks; with formidable Sound
The dreadful Eccho Thunders all around.
Ascribe to him Omnipotence alone
Who has in Israel fix'd his awful Throne:
But gather'd Clouds, his radiant State conceal,
And over his Tribunal cast a Veil.
How dreadful is the Majesty Divine!
What Terrors wait around his sacred Shrine.
'Tis Israel's God with Glory and Success
Adorns his Tribes: 'tis ours his Name to bless.