Unshaken as the Sacred Hill

They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. Psalm 125:1

Words: Isaac Watts, The Psalms of David 1719. The saints’ trial and safety.

Music: London New Psalms (Edinburgh, Scotland: 1635) (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

Mara, Charles Beecher, in the Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes, edited by Henry W. Beecher (New York: A. S. Barnes, 1855), page 250 (🔊 pdf nwc)
New York Tune, anonymous, in The Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book, edited by Lowell Mason, Edwards A. Park & Austin Phelps (New York: Mason Brothers, 1859), page 73 (🔊 pdf nwc)

Unshaken as the sacred hill,
And firm as mountains be,
Firm as a rock the soul shall rest
That leans, O Lord, on Thee.

Not walls nor hills could guard so well
Old Salem’s happy ground,
As those eternal arms of love
That every saint surround.

While tyrants are a smarting scourge
To drive them near to God,
Divine compassion does allay
The fury of the rod.

Deal gently, Lord, with souls sincere,
And lead them safely on
To the bright gates of paradise,
Where Christ their Lord is gone.

But if we trace the crooked ways
That the old serpent drew,
The wrath that drove him first to hell
Shall smite his followers, too.

Scripture Verse