1 IN time of tribulation
Hear, Lord, my feeble cries;
With humble supplication
To thee my spirit flies;
My heart with grief is breaking,
Scarce can my voice complain;
Mine eyes with tears kept waking,
Still watch and weep in vain.
2 The days of old, in vision,
Bring banished bliss to view;
The years of lost fruition,
Their joys in pangs renew;
Remembered songs of gladness,
Through nights lone silence brought,
Strike notes of deeper sadness,
And stir desponding thought.
3 Hath God cast off for ever?
Can time his truth impair?
His tender mercy never
Shall I presume to share?
Hath he his loving kindness
Shut up in endless wrath?
No; this is mine own blindness,
That cannot see his path.
4 I call to recollection
The years of his right hand;
And, strong in his protection,
Again through faith I stand;
Thy deeds, O Lord, are wonder;
Holy are all thy ways;
The secret place of thunder
Shall utter forth thy praise.
5 Thee, with the tribes assembled,
O God, the billows saw;
They saw thee, and they trembled,
Turned, and stood still with awe;
The clouds shot hail, they lightened;
The earth reeled to and fro;
Thy fiery pillar brightened
The gulf of gloom below.
6 Thy way is in great waters,
Thy footsteps are not known;
Let Adam's sons and daughters
Confide in thee alone:
Through the wild sea thou leddest
Thy chosen flock of yore;
Still on the waves thou treadest,
And thy redeemed pass o'er.