Scripture Verse

Be strong and of a good courage, fear not…for the Lord thy God, He it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Deuteronomy 31:6

Introduction

portrait
Philip Doddridge (1702–1751)

Words: Phi­lip Dodd­ridge (1702–1751). Pub­lished post­hu­mous­ly in Hymns Found­ed on Va­ri­ous Texts in the Ho­ly Scrip­tures, by Job Or­ton (Shrop­shire, Eng­land: Jo­shua Ed­dowes & John Cot­ton, 1755), num­ber 269: Fi­de­li­ty in mo­der­at­ing temp­ta­tions.

Music: Al­stone Chris­to­pher E. Will­ing, in the ap­pen­dix to Hymns An­cient and Mo­dern, 1868 (🔊 pdf nwc).

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

Lyrics

Now let the fee­ble all be strong,
And make Je­ho­vah’s arm their song:
His shield is spread o’er ev­ery saint,
And thus sup­port­ed, who shall faint?

What though the hosts of hell en­gage
With min­gled cru­el­ty and rage?
A faith­ful God re­strains their hands,
And chains them down in ir­on bands.

Bound by His word, He will dis­play
A strength pro­por­tioned to our day;
And, when unit­ed tri­als meet,
Will show a path of safe re­treat.

Thus far we prove that pro­mise good,
Which Je­sus ra­ti­fied with blood:
Still He is gra­cious, wise, and just,
And still in Him let Is­ra­el trust.