Psalm LXXIV. Ut quid repulisti in finem, &c.
I
Shall We for ever then be cast off thus,
And will Our God no more remember Us?
Shall then His flock no longer be His Care,
But more His rage, than once His love they were?
Forget not, Lord, Thy Purchace, and Thy Choyce,
Sion, which Thou hast made Thine own,
The Wonders Thou for Her, and Us hast done,
And let Our Prayers be heard amidst Our Enemies noyse!
II
Arise, and to their great destruction come,
Who to Thy Temple Gates have brought it home;
Thy Holy Place, and its Divine Recess,
Instead of stopping, do's their rage encrease:
Thither they break, and thence profanely bear
The Sacred Treasures of Thy House,
It's Vessels set apart from Common Use,
And on Thy Captive Altars their proud Trophys rear.
III
Our sad complaints Axes, and Hammars drown,
As if it were some grove they would hew down:
And all th' Adornments of Thy Dwelling place,
They or to powder beat, or else deface:
And to compleat Our ruin, when no more
The Ax, or weary hand can do,
They fire into Thy Sanctuary throw,
And what Thou so didst consecrate, with fire devour.
IV
“Them, and their Seed, let Us destroy, they say,
“And in one ruin with their Temple lay!
“What more accepted Flame to Heaven can rise,
“Than an whole Synagogue for Sacrifice?
“And they shall follow. This We see, and hear;
But have no Signes or Prophet more
To tell us when this Tempest will be o're,
Or How long, what too long already, we must bear.
V
How long, Dear God, shall Our Proud Enemy
Not us alone, but Thy Great Power defy?
Shall his vile mouth for ever thus defame,
Thy Sacred, and Unutterable Name?
Or wilt Thou alwayes thus Thy hand recall,
That Hand where all Our succours lie,
And only lift it from our sight on high?
Let it return at length, and heavier on them fall!
VI
Thou heretofore hast made Thy Strength be known,
And Wonders, which none else could do, hast done;
Dividing by th' Almighty Wand the Flood,
And mad'st it truly a Red Sea with blood:
When there the Chamian King by Thy Right Hand,
That great Leviathan of the Main,
Sunk in the deep, which cast Him up again,
That what its glutted Hosts had left, might feast the land.
VII
'Twas Thou, who mad'st the Rock in streames to flow,
And Floods stand still, to let Thy Israel go;
The day, and night with all its lamps are Thine,
Ligh't from that Sun, which Thou mad'st first to shine;
By Thee the bounds of the Round World are cast,
Both where they shall begin, and end,
Summer, and Winter on Thy Word attend,
All for Thy Pleasure made, and during it shall last.
VIII
Thou, who hast done all this to raise Thy Name,
Guard it from those, whose lips would blast its Fame!
Let not Thy mourning Dove become a prey
To Vulturs, but take wing, and fly away!
Deliver her, and minde Thy ancient Care,
Thy Covenant with Our Fathers made,
For th' Enemy Our very Graves invade,
And where we thought to lie retir'd, their Counsels are!
IX
Some answer to Our Prayers at length return,
Least shame confound Us, and we ever mourn!
Arise, and Thine Own Cause Thy self defend,
And let Thy Enemies Malice have an end!
Forget them not, their blasphemies, and pride,
Now that their Sin for vengeance cryes;
For they their heads have rais'd above the skies,
And Heav'n, with all its Thunders, to the Assault defy'd.
