Psalm 102 N.
Words: Sternhold and Hopkins, The Whole Book of Psalms Collected into English Metre
1 Hear thou my pray'r, O Lord and let
my cry come unto thee,
In time of trouble do hot hide
thy face away from me:
2 Incline thine ear to me, make haste
to hear me when I call;
For as the smoke doth fade, so do
my days consume and fall:
3 And as an hearth my bones are burnt,
my heart is smitten dead,
And withers like the grass, that I
forget to eat lay bread.
4 By reason of my groaning voice
my bones cleave to my skin:
As pelican in wilderness,
such case now am I in.
5 And as an owl in desert is,
Lo, I am such a one;
I watch, and as a sparrow on
the house-top am alone:
6 For daily in reproachful wise
my foes they do me scorn;
And them that mad upon me are,
against me they have sworn.
7 Surely with ashes as with bread,
my hunger I have filled,
And mingled have my drink with tears
that from my eyes distilled.
8 Because of thy displeasure, Lord,
thy wrath and great disdain;
For thou hast set me up on high,
and cast me down again.
9 The days wherein I pass my life
are like the fleeting shade;
And I am withered like the grass,
that soon away doth fade:
10 But thou, O Lord, for ever dost
remain in steady place,
And thy remembrance ever doth
abide from race to race.
The Second Part.
11 Thou wilt arise, and mercy thou
to Zion wilt extend;
The time of mercy, now the time
foreset is come to end.
10 For in the very stones thereof
thy servants do delight,
And on the dust thereof they have
compassion in their sight.
13 Then shall the heathen people fear
the Lord's most holy Name,
And all the kings on earth shall dread
his glory and his fame.
14 Then when the Lord the mighty God
again shall Zion rear,
And then when he most nobly in
his glory shall appear;
15 To pray'r of the poor destitute
when he himself shall bend,
When he shall not disdain unto
their suits for to attend:
16 This shall be written for the age
that after shall succeed;
The people that are yet unborn
the Lord's renown shall spread.
17 From his high sanctuary he
hath look-ed down below,
And out of heav'n most high he hath
beheld the earth also:
18 That of the mourning captive he
might hear the woeful cry,
And that he might deliver those
that were condemned to die.
19 That they in Zion may declare
the Lord's most holy Name,
And in Jerusalem set forth
the praises of the same;
20 Then when the people of the land
and kingdoms with accord,
Shall be assembled to perform
their service to the Lord.
The Third Part.
21 My former force of strength he hath
abated in the way,
And shorter he did cut my days,
thus I therefore did say,
22 My God, in midst of all my days
now take me not away;
Thy years endure eternally,
and never do decay:
23 Thou the foundations of the earth
before all time hast laid;
The heav'ns also, they are the work
which thy own hands have made:
24 They all shall perish and decay,
but thou remainest still;
And they shall all in time wax old
e'en as a garment will:
25 Thou as a vesture shalt them change,
and chang�d they shall be;
But thou dost still abide the same,
thy years do never flee.
26 The children of thy servants shall
continue and endure,
And in thy sight their happy seed
for ever shall stand sure.
