Scripture Verse

How long wilt Thou forget me, O Lord? For ever? How long wilt Thou hide Thy face from me? Psalm 13:1

Introduction

portrait
Michael Lonneke (1943–)

Words: From the Scot­tish Psal­ter.

Music: Pa­ris Mi­chael Lon­ne­ke, 2005 (🔊 pdf nwc). The tune was writ­ten spe­ci­fi­cal­ly for these words: the key change in the last two vers­es re­flects the shift from la­men­ta­tion to joy­ful praise. The com­pos­er grants per­mis­sion to re­pro­duce the mu­sic for Chris­tian use.

Lyrics

How long wilt Thou for­get me, Lord?
Shall it for ev­er be?
O how long shall it be that Thou
Wilt hide Thy face from me?

How long take coun­sel in my soul,
Still sad in heart, shall I?
How long ex­alt­ed over me
Shall be mine ene­my?

O Lord my God, con­si­der well,
And an­swer to me make:
Mine eyes en­light­en, lest the sleep
Of death me ov­er­take:

Lest that mine ene­my should say,
Against me he pre­vailed;
And those that trou­ble me re­joice,
When I am moved and failed.

But I have all my con­fi­dence
Thy mercy set up­on;
My heart with­in me shall re­joice
In Thy sal­va­tion.

I will un­to the Lord my God
Sing prais­es cheer­ful­ly,
Because He hath His boun­ty shown
To me abun­dant­ly.