Scripture Verse

Lord, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me. Psalm 3:1

Introduction

portrait
Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

Words: Is­aac Watts, The Psalms of Da­vid 1719. Doubts and fears sup­pressed; or God, our de­fense from sin and Sa­tan.

Music: Wind­sor Chris­to­pher Tye, 1533. Ar­ranged in the Booke of Mu­sicke, by Will­iam Da­man, 1591 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Lyrics

My God, how ma­ny are my fears!
How fast my foes in­crease!
Conspiring my eter­nal death,
They break my pre­sent peace.

The ly­ing temp­ter would per­suade
There’s no re­lief in Heav’n;
And all my swell­ing sins ap­pear
Too big to be for­giv’n.

But Thou, my glo­ry and my strength,
Shalt on the temp­ter tread,
Shalt si­lence all my threat­en­ing guilt,
And raise my droop­ing head.

I cried, and from His ho­ly hill
He bowed a list­en­ing ear;
I called my Fa­ther, and my God,
And He sub­dued my fear.

He shed soft slum­bers on mine eyes,
In spite of all my foes;
I woke, and won­dered at the grace
That guard­ed my re­pose.

What though the hosts of death and hell
All armed against me stood,
Terrors no more shall shake my soul;
My re­fuge is my God.

Arise, O Lord, ful­fill Thy grace,
While I Thy glo­ry sing;
My God has broke the ser­pent’s teeth,
And death has lost his sting.

Salvation to the Lord be­longs;
His arm alone can save;
Blessings at­tend Thy peo­ple here,
And reach be­yond the grave.