How Awful Is Thy Chastening Rod

How aw­ful is Thy chast­en­ing rod!

May Thy own child­ren say:

The great

the wise

the dread­ful God!

How ho­ly is His way!

I’ll me­di­tate His works of old

The King that reigns ab­ove;

I’ll hear His an­cient won­ders told

And learn to trust His love.

Long did the house of Jo­seph lie

With Egypt’s yoke op­pressed;

Long He de­layed to hear their cry

Nor gave His peo­ple rest.

The sons of good old Ja­cob seemed

Abandoned to their foes;

But His al­migh­ty arm re­deemed

The na­tion that He chose.

Israel

His peo­ple and His sheep

Must fol­low where He calls;

He bade them ven­ture through the deep

And made the waves their walls.

The wa­ters saw Thee

migh­ty God!

The wa­ters saw Thee come;

Backward they fled

and fright­ed stood

To make Thine ar­mies room.

Strange was Thy jour­ney through the sea

Thy foot­steps

Lord

un­known;

Terrors at­tend the won­drous way

That brings Thy mer­cies down.

Thy voice

with ter­ror in the sound

Through clouds and dark­ness broke;

All Heav’n in light­ning shone around

And earth with thun­der shook.

Thine ar­rows through the skies were hurled;

How glo­ri­ous is the Lord!

Surprise and trem­bling seized the world

And His own saints ad­ored.

He gave them wa­ter from the rock

And safe

by Mos­es’ hand

Through sun-baked de­sert led His flock

Home to the pro­mised land.