Arm of the Lord, awake for me

Verse 1
Arm of the Lord, awake for me!
Art thou not it that smote the sea,
And all its mighty waters dry’d!
Art thou not it that quell’d the boast
Of haughty Pharaoh, and his host,
And baffled all their furious pride!

Verse 2
Thou didst th’ outrageous dragon wound,
Thou hast the horse and rider drown’d,
Glorious and excellent in power;
While Israel march’d in firm array,
Triumphant thro’ the wondrous way,
Nor stumbled till they reach’d the shore.

Verse 3
Awake, as in the antient days:
See in our foes th’ Egyptian race,
With hell’s grim tyrant at their head,
Inrag’d at our escape he roars,
And follows us with all his powers,
Out of his iron furnace freed.

Verse 4
“I will pursue, I will o’ertake,
I will my fugitives bring back,
And satisfy my lust of blood,
Draw out my sword of keenest lies,
Pour a whole flood of perjuries,
And make the rebels know their god.”

Verse 5
Angel divine, who still art near,
Remove, and guard thy people’s rear,
This day for thy[1] own Israel fight;
O let the pillar interpose,
A cloud and darkness to our foes,
To us a flame of chearing light.

Verse 6
Hear us to thee for succour cry,
Nor let the hostile powers come nigh,
In all our night of doubts and fears:
They cannot force their way thro’ thee,
And thou shalt our protection be,
Till the glad morning light appears.

Verse 7
Look thro’ the tutelary cloud,
In which thou dost our souls inshroud,
And blast the alliens with thine eye,
Trouble the proud Egyptian host,
Confound their vain presumptuous boast
Who Israel’s God in us defy.

Verse 8
Arrest our fierce pursuers’ speed,
Take off their chariot-wheels, with dread
And heavy wrath their spirits pain,
Extort the cry from ev’ry heart,
“Jehovah takes his people’s part,
We fight against the Lord in vain.”

[1] Wesley changed “thy” to “thine” in 1755.

Hymnal/Album: Introduced in a hymnal jointly credited to John and Charles Wesley; it is more likely than not that Charles wrote it but not certain. Introduced in Hymns for Those That Seek and Those That Have Redemption in the Blood of Jesus Christ (William Strahan, 1747). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 4 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1869), page 222.
Publishing: Public Domain