University of Virginia Library

PSALM LXXXIII.

My God, no longer silent stand;
No longer let thy pow'rful hand
Withhold its oft requested aid,
While thus thy foes our peace invade,
In mingled tumult round us rise,
And brave with listed head the skies.
Behold them, Lord, their arts employ,
The Heav'n-rais'd People to destroy,
The Souls, whom with thy favour crown'd
Thy secret presence wraps around.
“Come, (thus, by lawless fury led,
“Aloud they cry,) destruction spread
“Along their desolated shore,
“Till Israel's name be heard no more.”
Their leagues, their plans, with frantic aim,
Against Omnipotence they frame;
And, fir'd to rage, with fierce alarms
The headlong Nations rush to arms.
The tents of Edom o'er the plain
Here vomit forth their impious train,
While with the Sons of Ismael's line
The harness'd Agaræans join.
Here Gebal, Moab, Ammon stand,
And Amalec's unconquer'd Band.
See, fearless, with imperial Tyre
Philistia's habitants conspire;
See Assur draw the hostile blade,
And lend to Lot's vile Race his aid.
But give them, Lord, thine Arm to feel,
That Arm that made fierce Midian reel,
And to th' expecting Mother's pride
Her Sisera's return denied;
That Jabin's warlike troops subdu'd
Near antient Kison's purpled flood,
While Endor Israel's foes beheld
Inrich with slaughter'd heaps her field.
As Oreb and as Zeeb o'erthrown,
Beneath thy terrors let them groan;
What woes thy sin-chastising sword
On Zebah and Zalmunna pour'd,
Such let their Princes, Lord, endure,
Who vaunting to their arms insure
The Land by holy Patriarchs trod,
The Heritage of Jacob's God.
As chaff, as stubble, let them fly,
That driv'n by winds obscure the sky.
Swift as the fiery deluge strays,
And wraps the forest in its blaze,
Or, furious, onward as it pours,
The mountain's shaggy waste devours,
Pursue them, mightiest Lord, pursue,
And let thy vengeance, to their view
Presented, whelm their souls in dread,
And burst in tempests o'er their head.
With wild confusion clothe their cheek,
And teach them, Lord, thy Name to seek,
While ruin, death, and shame, they see
To each ordain'd that errs from Thee.
“Jehovah, shall the Rebels cry,
“Jehovah only reigns on high,
“And o'er the Earth from day to day
“Asserts his everlasting Sway.”