Why do You make me see iniquity, and why do You idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.
Habakkuk 1:3-4
Words: Hannah J. Lewis (1816–1885). Appeared in The Poetical Works of Mrs. H. J. Lewis (Boston, Massachusetts: Cupples, Upham, 1885), pages 50–51.
Music: Stoney Frank E. A. Stoney, 1916 (🔊 pdf nwc).
If you know where to get a good photo of Stoney (head & shoulders, at least 200×300 pixels),
When will the boon for which I daily pray,
Descend with healing on my troubled way,
And chase the shadows from my darkened day?
In God’s good time.
If I am sinning in my daily prayer,
If what I ask would prove a curse, a snare,
When shall the whisper come, O soul, beware
?
In God’s good time.
Till then I battle strong with hope delayed,
And plead with patience for her potent aid:
When shall the strife be o’er, the tempest stayed?
In God’s good time.
May I be firm to hope, to trust, to wait,
Earnest but humble at the heav’nly gate,
Through which the good I crave may crown my fate.
In God’s good time.
And should it come not, should the light of years
Go out beneath a flood of blinding tears,
I’ll bide the dawn which soon or late appears.
In God’s good time.