While Justice Waves Her Vengeful Hand

While Justice waves her venge­ful hand

Tremendous o’er a guil­ty land

Almighty God

Thy aw­ful pow­er

With fear and trem­bling

we adore.

Where shall we fly

but to Thy feet?

Our on­ly re­fuge is Thy seat;

Thy seat

where po­tent mer­cy pleads

And holds Thy thun­der from our heads.

While peace and plen­ty blessed our days

Where was the trib­ute of Thy praise?

Ungrateful race! How have we spent

The bless­ings which Thy good­ness lent?

Pale fa­mine now

and wast­ing war

With threat­en­ing frown Thy wrath de­clare;

But war and fa­mine are Thy slaves

Nor can de­stroy when mer­cy saves.

Look down

O Lord

with pi­ty­ing eye

Though loud our crimes for ven­geance cry

Let mer­cy’s ten­der voice pre­vail

Nor let Thy long suf­fer­ing pa­tience fail.

Encouraged by Thy sac­red Word

May we not plead the blest re­cord

That when a hum­ble na­tion mourns

Thy ris­ing wrath to pi­ty turns.

O let Thy sov­er­eign grace im­part

Contrition to each roc­ky heart

And bid sin­cere re­pent­ance flow

A ge­ner­al

un­dis­sem­bled woe.

Our arms

O God of ar­mies

bless

Thy hand alone can give suc­cess;

And make our haugh­ty neigh­bors know

That Heav­en pro­tects us from our foe.

Fair smil­ing peace again re­store

With plen­ty bless the pin­ing poor

And may a hap­py

thank­ful land

Obedient own Thy guard­ian hand.