Arm of the Lord, Awake, Awake!

Arm of the Lord

awake

awake!

Thine own im­mor­tal strength put on!

With ter­ror clothed

hell’s king­dom shake

And cast Thy foes with fu­ry down!

As in the an­cient days ap­pear!

The sac­red an­nals speak Thy fame:

Be now om­ni­po­tent­ly near

Thro’ end­less ag­es still the same.

Thy ten­fold ven­geance knew to quell

And hum­ble haugh­ty Ra­hab’s pride

Groaned her pale sons Thy stroke to feel

The first-born vic­tims groaned

and died.

The wound­ed dra­gon raged in vain

While bold Thine ut­most plague to brave

Madly he dared the part­ed main

And sunk be­neath th’o’er­whelm­ing wave.

He sunk; while Is­rael’s chos­en race

Triumphant urge their won­drous way;

Divinely led

the fa­vo­rites pass

Th’unwatery deep

and emp­tied sea.

At dist­ance heaped on ei­ther hand

Yielding a strange un­beat­en road

In crys­tal walls the wa­ters stand

And own the arm of Is­ra­el’s God.

That arm which is not short­ened now

Which lacks not now the pow­er to save;

Still pre­sent with Thy peo­ple Thou

Bear’st them thro life’s dis­part­ed wave.

By earth and hell pur­sued in vain

To Thee the ran­somed seed shall come

Shouting their heav­en­ly Si­on gain

And pass thro’ death tri­umph­ant home.

The pain of life shall there be o’er

The ang­uish

and dis­tract­ing care

There sigh­ing grief shall weep no more

And sin shall nev­er en­ter there.

Where pure es­sen­tial joy is found

The Lord’s re­deemed their heads shall raise

With ev­er­last­ing glad­ness crowned

And filled with love

and lost in praise.