A translation of the psalms of David :: :: University of Virginia Library

My hearty thanks I will renew
To Christ amidst a faithful few
In private and domestic song,
And with the public worship close,
Where pious churchmen fill the rows,
And congregated angels throng.

The works of God are good and great,
And in the mind of man create
A zeal for infinite applause;
And all that take sublime delight,
The scholars of the word unite
Their studies in their truth and laws.

The works of God's consummate art
To laud and rev'rence warm the heart,
Where might and merit are supreme;
His justice o'er the foe prevails,
Suspending her impartial scales
Upon an everlasting beam.

The miracles of God the Son
In such stupendous grace are done,
And mercy to the race restor'd,
That their memorial should be kept,
And he that bled, and he that wept,
By ceaseless thanks and pray'rs ador'd.

By him his faithful flock is fed
With drink indeed and living bread,
Thro' which their grievous wounds are heal'd;
And happy they that take the crumbs
When now the promis'd Shiloh comes,
When now the testament is seal'd.

His goodness and his pow'r divine
He shew'd unto the patriarch's line,
The people which he nam'd his own,
That thence Emanuel's wondrous birth,
Salvation to remotest earth,
From Israel's learning might be known.

His works are very truth, and wrought
To full perfection of his thought,
Dispos'd in Christ the master's skill;
The angels of his word are just,
Which keep the records of his trust,
And all his prophecies fulfil.

His everlasting types display
Those truths which never can decay,
Tho' worlds consume and language cease;
Their doctrine's infinitely sound,
Their dispensations all abound
With matchless equity and peace.

He sent his Christ with joyful news
To foil the fiend and disabuse
The sinners, for whose sake he came;
He fixt his covenant of grace
Upon a sempiternal base;
August and holy is his name.

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The fear of God begins the man—
'Tis our first wisdom and the plan
All hopeful edifice to raise;
Obedience God's applause obtains,
Where Christ our resurrection reigns
In everlasting pow'r and praise.