1 MY soul, inspired with sacred love,
The Lord thy God delight to praise;
His gifts I will for him improve,
To him devote my happy days;
To him my thanks and praises give,
And only for his glory live.
2 Long as my God shall lend me breath,
My every pulse shall beat for him;
And when my voice is lost in death,
My spirit shall resume the theme;
The gracious theme, for ever new,
Through all eternity pursue.
3 Soon as the breath of man expires,
Again he to his earth shall turn;
Where then are all his vain desires,
His love and hate, esteem and scorn?
All, all at that last gasp are o'er,
He falls to rise on earth no more.
4 He then is blest, and only he,
Whose hope is in the Lord his God;
Who can to him for succour flee
That spread the earth and heaven abroad;
That still the universe sustains,
And Lord of his creation reigns.
5 True to his everlasting word,
He loves the injured to redress:
Poor helpless souls the bounteous Lord
Relieves, and fills with plenteousness:
He sets the mournful prisoners free,
He bids the blind their Saviour see.
6 The Lord thy God, O Zion, reigns,
Supreme in mercy as in power,
The endless theme of heavenly strains,
When time and death shall be no more:
And all eternity shall prove
Too short to utter all his love.