O God, Whom I Delight to Praise

O God

whom I de­light to praise

To Thee my cry for help I raise;

Be Thou my friend and ad­vo­cate

When foes as­sail with bit­ter hate.

Against me slan­der­ous words are flung

From ma­ny a false and ly­ing tongue;

Without a cause men hurl at me

The shafts of dead­ly en­mi­ty.

My good with ev­il they re­pay

My love turns not their hate away;

The part of ven­geance

Lord

is Thine;

To pray

and on­ly pray

is mine.

Since love ap­peals to him in vain

The slave of sin let him re­main;

Against him let his foe be turned

His sin be judged

his pray­er be spurned.

Let sud­den death up­on him break

His of­fice let ano­ther take

His child­ren and his wi­dowed wife

Pursue the home­less beg­gar’s life.

Let cre­dit­ors con­sume his toil

And strang­ers make his wealth their spoil;

Let none in pi­ty heed his claim;

Cut off his race

blot out his name.

His par­ents’ sins be not for­got

Till Thou from earth his me­mo­ry blot

Since he re­mem­bered not to show

Compassion to the sons of woe.

He curs­ing loved and bless­ing loathed:

Unblest

with curs­ing he is clothed;

For thus the jus­tice of the Lord

My ad­ver­sar­ies will re­ward.

O God

the Lord

for Thy name’s sake

Let me of Thy good grace par­take;

My need is great

and great Thou art

To heal my wound­ed

strick­en heart.

With fail­ing strength I fast and pine

Like sha­dows swift my days de­cline

And when my foes my weak­ness see

They shake their head in scorn at me.

O Lord

my God

Thy help I crave

In Thy great lov­ing­kind­ness save;

Before my foes Thy mer­cy show;

That Thou dost help me

make them know.

What though they curse

if Thou wilt bless?

Then joy shall ban­ish my dis­tress

And shame shall ov­er­whelm the foes

Who would Thy serv­ant’s way op­pose.

Thanksgiving to the Lord I raise

The mul­ti­tude shall hear my praise

For by the needy God will stand

To save them from op­press­ion’s hand.