Thee, O Lord, the good, the just

Verse 1
Thee, O Lord, the Good the Just,
True and faithful I receive,
Keep thy Word, in which I trust
Thou who gav’st me to Believe:
Hoping for thy Promis’d Aid
Comfort in my Grief I find;
This my fainting Mind hath stay’d,
Still it stays my fainting Mind.

Verse 2
Me the Proud have greatly scorn’d,
Yet I still unshaken stood,
Never from thy Statutes turn’d,
Never left the Narrow Road:
On thine antient Works I thought,
Look’d again the same to see:
Thou of old hast Wonders wrought,
Wonders Thou shalt work for me.

Verse 3
Fearless of the Scorner’s Power,
Fearful for their Souls I was,
Saw Hell open to devour
All who break thy righteous Laws:
Lord, thy Laws my Songs have been
In my Pilgrimage below,
Kept by them from Woe and Sin
In a World of Sin and Woe.

Verse 4
Thee I have remembred, Lord,
Musing in the silent Night,
Lov’d thy Name, and kept thy Word;
Pure and permanent Delight
I did in thy Precepts prove:
Heaven on Earth Obedience is,
Perfect Liberty, and Love,
Perfect Power, and perfect Peace.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “Psalm 119. VII.” This hymn was appears in the mid-to-late-1740s manuscript “MS Fish.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/566, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 2). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Introduced in Versions and Paraphrases of Select Psalms. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 8 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 216.
Publishing: Public Domain