Scripture Verse

Hold not Thy peace, O God of my praise; For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue. Psalm 109:1–2

Introduction

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Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

Words: Is­aac Watts, The Psalms of Da­vid 1719. Love to en­emies from the ex­am­ple of Christ.

Music: Pen­maen­mawr Sar­ah G. Stock, 1887 (🔊 pdf nwc).

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Stock (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

God of my mer­cy and my praise,
Thy glo­ry is my song;
Tho’ sin­ners speak against Thy grace
With a blas­phem­ing tongue.

When in the form of mor­tal man
Thy Son on earth was found,
With cru­el slan­ders, false and vain,
They com­passed Him around.

Their mi­se­ries His com­pass­ion move,
Their peace He still pur­sued;
They ren­der hat­red for His love,
And ev­il for His good.

Their ma­lice raged with­out a cause,
Yet with His dy­ing breath
He prayed for mur­der­ers on His cross,
And blest His foes in death.

Lord, shall Thy bright ex­am­ple shine
In vain be­fore my eyes?
Give me a soul akin to Thine
To love my ene­mies.

The Lord shall on my side en­gage,
And in my Sav­ior’s name,
I shall de­feat their pride and rage
Who slan­der and con­demn.