Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Let us before his presence come
With praise and thankful voice
Let us sing psalms to him with grace
And make a joyful noise.

For God, a great God and great King,
Above all gods he is.

Depths of the earth are in his hand,
The strength of hills is his.

To him the spacious sea belongs,
For he the same did make:
The dry land also from his hands

Its form at first did take.

O come and let us worship him,
Let us bow down withal,
And on our knees before the Lord
Our Maker let us fall.

PSALMODY OF THE FREE CHURCH OF
SCOTLAND (1895).

PSALM XCVI.

SING and let your song be new,
Unto him that never endeth!
Sing all earth, and all in you,
Sing to God, and bless his name.
Of the help, the health he sendeth.
Day by day new ditties frame.

Make each country know his worth:
Of his acts the wondrous story
Paint unto each people forth.

For Jehovah, great alone,
All the gods, for awe and glory,

Far above doth hold his throne.

For but idols, what are they

Whom besides mad earth adoreth? He the skies in frame did lay. Grace and honor are his guides; Majesty his temple storeth;

Might in guard about him bides.

Kindreds come! Jehovah give,

Oh, give Jehovah, all together, Force and fame whereso you live.

Give his name the glory fit: Take your offerings, get you thither, Where he doth enshrinèd sit.

Go, adore him in the place

Where his pomp is most displayed.

Earth, oh, go with quaking pace,

Go proclaim Jehovah king: Stayless world shall now be stayed; Righteous doom his rule shall bring. Starry roof and earthy floor,

Sea, and all thy wideness yieldeth, Now rejoice, and leap, and roar. Leafy infants of the wood, Fields, and all that on you feedeth, Dance, oh, dance, at such a good!

For Jehovah cometh, lo!

Lo to reign Jehovah cometh!
Under whom you all shall go.
He the world shall rightly guide-
Truly, as a king becometh,

For the people's weal provide.

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY (1554-1586),

PSALM XCVII.

THE Lord doth raigne, whereat ye earth,

May joy with pleasant voyce:

And eke the Iles with joyfull myrth,

May triumph and rejoice.

Both clouds and darkness eke do swell,
And round about him beate:

Yea right and justice ever dwell,
And bide about his seate.

Yea fire and heate at once do runne, And go before his face:

Which shall his foes and enemies burne,
Abroad in every place.

Ilis lightnings eke full bright did blaze,
And to the world appeare:
Whereat the earth did looke and gase,
With dread and deadly feare.

The hilles like waxe did melt in sight,
And presence of the Lord:
They fled before that ruler's might,
Which guideth all the 'world.
The heavens eke declare and shew,
His justice forth abroad:

That all the world may see and know,
The goodness of our God.

Confusion sure shall come to such,
As worship Idols vaine:
And eke to those that glorie much,
Dumme pictures to maintaine.
For all the idols of the world,
Which they as Gods do call:

[blocks in formation]

PSALM C.

ALL people that on earth do dwell,

Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice: Him serve with fear, his praise forth tell,

Come ye before him and rejoice.

The Lord, ye know, is God indeed; Without our aid he did us make: We are his flock, he doth us feed,

And for his sheep he doth us take.

Oh, enter, then, his gates with praise, Approach with joy his courts unto; Praise, laud, and bless his name always, For it is seemly so to do.

For why? the Lord our God is good,
His mercy is forever sure;
His truth at all times firmly stood,
And shall from age to age endure.
WILLIAM Kethe.

PSALM CI.

MERCY and judgment are my song;
And, since they both to thee belong,
My gracious God, my righteous King,
To thee my vows and songs I bring.

If I am raised to bear the sword
I'll take the counsels of thy word;
Thy justice and thy heavenly grace
Shall be the pattern of my ways.

Let wisdom all my actions guide,
And let my God with me reside;
No wicked thing shall dwell with me,
Which may provoke thy jealousy.

No sons of slander, rage and strife
Shall be companions of my life;
The haughty look, the heart of pride,
Within my doors shall ne'er abide.

(I'll search the land, and raise the just, To posts of honour, wealth and trust; The men who work thy holy will, Shall be my friends and favorites still.)

In vain shall sinners hope to rise,
By flattering or malicious lies;
And while the innocent I guard,
The bold offender shan't be spared.

The impious crew, the factious band, Shall hide their heads, or quit the land; And all who break the public rest, Where I have power, shall be suppressed.

ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748).

PSALM CII, VERSES 6 AND 7.

IN eaves sole sparrowe sitts not more alone,

Nor mourning pelican in desert wilde, Than sely I, that solitary mone,

From highest hopes to hardest happ exil'd:

Sometyme, O blissfull tyme! was Vertue's meede

Ayme to my thoughtes, guide to my word and deede.

But feares are now my pheares*, greife my delight,

My teares my drinke, my famisht thoughtes my bedd;

Day full of dumpes, nurse of unrest the nighte,

My garments gives, a bloody feilde my bedde,

My sleape is rather death than deathe's allye,

Yet kill'd with murd'ring pangues I

cannot dye.

ROBERT SOUTHWELL (1562-1595).

PSALM CIII.

THE DIVINE LOVE UNCHANGE-
ABLE.

O MY Soul, with all thy powers,
Bless the Lord's most holy name,
O my soul, till life's last hours,

Bless the Lord, his praise proclaim! As the heaven the earth transcends, Over us His care extends.

He with loving-kindness crowned thee,
Satisfied thy mouth with good;
From the snares of death unbound thee,
Eagle-like thy youth renewed:
Rich in tender mercy He,
Slow to wrath, to favor free.

Far as east and west are parted, He our sins hath severed thus;

*Companions.

[blocks in formation]

Then hills and vales did not distinction know,

But leveled nature lay oppressed below. With speed they, at thy awful thunder's

roar,

Shrinked within the limits of their shore.

Through secret tracts they up the mountain creep,

And rocky caverns fruitful moisture weep,

Which sweetly through the verdant vales doth glide,

Till 'tis devoured by the greedy tide. The feeble sands thou'st made the ocean's mounds,

Its foaming waves shall ne'er repass these bounds,

Again to triumph over the dry grounds. Between the hills grazed by the bleating kind,

Soft warbling rills their mazy way do find;

By him appointed fully to supply, When the hot dogstar fires the realms on high,

The raging thirst of every sickening beast,

Of the wild ass that roams the dreary waste:

The feathered nation, by their smiling sides,

In lowly brambles, or in trees abides; By nature taught, on them they rear their nests,

That with inimitable art are dressed. They for the shade and safety of the wood

With natural music cheer the neighborhood.

He doth the clouds with genial moisture fill,

Which on the shriveled ground they bounteous distill.

And nature's lap with various blessings crowd:

The giver, God! all creatures crv aloud. With freshest green he clothes the fragrant mead,

Whereon the grazing herds wanton and feed.

With vital juice he makes the plants abound,

And herbs securely spring above the ground,

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« AnteriorContinuar »