Lord, hear the right, re­gard my cry,
My pray­er from lips sin­cere,
Send Thine ap­prov­al from on high,
My right­eous­ness make clear.
Thou in the night my heart hast tried,
Nor found it turned from Thee aside.

With stead­fast cour­age I de­sign
No wrong to speak or do;
Thy path of life I choose for mine
And walk with pur­pose true.
For help, O God, I cry to Thee,
Assured that Thou wilt an­swer me.

O Thou that ev­er sav­est those
Whose trust on Thee is stayed,
Preserving them from all their foes
By Thine al­migh­ty aid,
Let me Thy lov­ing­kind­ness see,
Thy won­drous mer­cy, full and free.

O guard me well as one would guard
The ap­ple of the eye;
While dead­ly foes are press­ing hard,
To Thee, to Thee I cry;
Do Thou my rest and re­fuge be,
O let Thy wings o’er­sha­dow me.

Mine ene­my, grown strong in pride,
Would take my life away,
A li­on lurk­ing by my side,
Most greedy for his prey.
Confront and cast him down, O Lord,
From ev­il save me by Thy sword.

Defend me from the men of pride,
Whose por­tion is be­low,
Who, with life’s trea­sures sa­tis­fied,
No bet­ter por­tion know;
They, with earth’s joys and wealth con­tent,
Must leave them all when life is spent.

When I in right­eous­ness at last
Thy glo­ri­ous face shall see,
When all the wea­ry night is past,
And I awake with Thee
To view the glo­ries that abide,
Then, then I shall be sa­tis­fied.