PAGE 224:
PSALM 127. L.M.
The blessing of God on the cares and comforts of life.
1 |
IF God succeed not, all the cost
And pains to build the house are lost;
If God the city do not keep,
The watchful guards as well may sleep.
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2 |
What, tho' you rise before the sun,
And work and toil when day is done;
Careful and sparing eat your bread,
To shun that poverty you dread;
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3 |
'Tis all in vain, till God hath blest;
He can make rich, yet give us rest:
Children and friends are blessings too,
If God, our sov'reign, make them so.
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4 |
Happy the man to whom he sends
Obedient children, faithful friends:
How sweet our daily comforts prove,
When they are season'd with his love!
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PSALM 128. C.M.
A christian blessed in his family.
1 |
O HAPPY man, whose soul is fill'd
With faith and rev'rend awe;
Whose lips to God their honours yield,
Whose life adorns the law.
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2 |
A careful Providence shall stand,
And ever guard thy head;
And on the labours of thy hand
Its kindly blessings shed.
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3 |
Thy wife shall be a fruitful vine;
Thy children round thy board,
Each, like a plant of honour, shine,
And learn to fear the Lord.
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4 |
The Lord shall thy best hopes fulfil,
For months and years to come;
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PAGE 225
PSALM 128. C.M.
A christian blessed in his family. (cont.)
4 |
The Lord, who dwells on Zion's hill,
Shall send the blessings home.
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5 |
This is the man, whose happy eyes
Shall see his house increase;
Shall see the sinking church arise,
And leave the world in peace.
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PSALM 129. C.M.
Persecutors punished.
1 |
UP from my youth, may Israel say,
Have I been nurs'd in tears;
My griefs were constant as the day,
And tedious as the years.
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2 |
Up from my youth I bore the rage
Of all the sons of strife;
Oft they assail'd my riper age,
But not destroy'd my life.
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3 |
Their cruel plough had torn my flesh
With furrows long and deep;
Hourly they vex'd my wounds afresh,
Nor let my sorrows sleep.
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4 |
How was their insolence surpris'd,
To hear his thunders roll!
And all the foes of Zion seiz'd
With horror to the soul.
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5 |
Thus shall the men that hate the saints,
Be blasted from the sky;
Their glory fades, their courage faints.
And all their projects die.
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6 |
What tho' they flourish tall and fair!
They have no root beneath;
Their growth shall perish in despair,
And lie despis'd in death.
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7 |
So corn, that on the house-top stands.
No hope of harvest gives;
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