Metrical 'Old Version' (John Hopkins)
English text
Be light and glad, in God rejoice,
Who is our strength and stay:
Be joyful, and lift up your voice
To Jacob's God alway.
Prepare your instruments most meet
Some joyful psalm to sing;
Strike up with harp and lute so sweet,
On ev'ry pleasant string.
Blow as it were in the new moon,
With trumpets of the best;
As it is used to be done
At any solemn feast.
For this is unto Israel
A statute which was made
By Jacob's God, and must full well
Be evermore obey'd.
This clause with Joseph was decreed,
When he from Egypt came,
That as a witness all his seed
Should still observe the same.
When God himself had so prepar'd
To bring him from that land;
Whereas the speech which he had heard
He did not understand.
I from his shoulder took, saith he,
The burden clean away;
And from the furnace set him free
From burning brick of clay.
When thou in grief didst cry and call,
I help'd thee speedily;
And I did answer thee withal
In thunder from on high.
Yea, at the waters of discord
I did thee tempt and prove,
Where thou the anger of the Lord
With murmuring didst move.
Hear, O my people Israel,
What I do promise thee;
Regard and mark my words full well,
If thou wilt cleave to me.
The Second Part
Thou shalt no god in thee reserve,
Of any land abroad;
And in no wise bow to or serve
A strange and foreign god.
I am the Lord thy God, and I
From Egypt set thee free;
Then ask of me abundantly,
And I will give it thee.
But yet my people would not hear
My voice when that I spake;
And Israel would not obey
But did me quite forsake.
Then did I leave them to their will,
In hardness of their heart;
To walk in their own counsels still,
Themselves they did pervert.
O that my people would have heard
The words that I did say;
And Israel with due regard
Had walked in my way!
I should have soon destroy'd their foes,
And brought them down full low,
And turn'd my hand against all those
That sought their overthrow.
And they that at the Lord did rage
As liars should be found;
But for his folk, their time and age
Should with great joy be crown'd:
I would have fed them with the crop
And finest of the wheat,
And made the rock with honey drop
That they their fills might eat.
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New Version Metrical Psalter (Tate & Brady)
English text
1 To God, our never-failing strength,
With loud applauses sing;
And jointly make a cheerful noise
To Jacob's awful King.
2 Compose a hymn of praise, and touch
Your instruments of joy,
Let psalteries and pleasant harps
Your grateful skill employ.
3 Let trumpets at the great new moon
Their joyful voices raise,
To celebrate th'appointed time,
The solemn day of praise.
4 For this a statute was of old,
Which Jacob's God decreed,
To be with pious care observ'd
By Israel's chosen seed.
5 This he for a memorial fix'd,
When, freed from Egypt's land,
Strange nations' barb'rous speech we heard,
But could not understand.
6 Your burdened shoulders I reliev'd,
(Thus seems our God to say,)
Your servile hands by me were freed
From lab'ring in the clay.
7 Your ancestors, with wrongs oppress'd,
To me for aid did call;
With pity I their suff'rings saw,
And set them free from all.
8 They sought for me, and from the cloud
In thunder I replied;
At Meriba's contentious stream
Their faith and duty tried.
The Second Part
9 While I my solemn will declare,
My chosen people, hear:
If thou, O Israel, to my words
Wilt lend thy list'ning ear;
10 Then shall no god besides myself
Within thy coasts be found;
Nor shalt thou worship any god
Of all the nations round.
11 The Lord thy God am I, who thee
Brought forth from Egypt's land;
'Tis I that all thy just desires
Supply with lib'ral hand.
12 But they, my chosen race, refus'd
To hearken to my voice;
Nor would rebellious Israel's sons
Make me their happy choice.
13 So I, provok'd, resign'd them up
So ev'ry lust a prey,
And in their own perverse designs
Permitted them to stray.
14 O that my people wisely would
My just commandments heed,
And Israel in my righteous ways
With pious care proceed!
15 Then should my heavy judgements fall
On all that them oppose,
And my avenging hand be turn'd
Against their num'rous foes.
16 Their enemies and mine should all
Before my footstool bend;
But as for them, their happy state
Should never know an end.
17 All parts with plenty should abound;
With finest wheat their field:
The barren rocks, to please their taste,
Should richest honey yield.
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