Verse 1
O God, the great the fearful God,
To thee we humbly sue for peace,
Groaning beneath a nation’s load,
And crush’d by our own wickedness,
Our guilt we tremble to declare,
And pour out our sad souls in pray’r.
Verse 2
Thee we revere, the faithful Lord,
Keeping the cov’nant of thy grace,
True to thine everlasting word,
Loving to all who seek thy face,
And keep thy kind commands, and prove
Their faith by their obedient love.
Verse 3
But we have only evil wrought,
Have done to our good God despight,
Rebellious with our Maker fought,
And sinn’d against the gospel-light,
Departed from his righteous ways,
And fallen, fallen from his grace.
Verse 4
We have not hearken’d to the word
Thy prophets and apostles spoke;
In them we disobey’d their Lord;
Our princes have cast off the yoke,
Our kings thy sovereign will withstood,
Our fathers have denied their God.
Verse 5
The rich, and poor, the high, and low,
Have trampled on thy mild command;
The floods of wickedness o’erflow,
And deluge all our guilty land,
People and priest lie drown’d in sin,
And Tophet yawns to take us in.
Verse 6
Righteousness, Lord, belongs to thee,
But guilt to us, and foul disgrace,
Confusion, shame, and misery
Is due to all our faithless race,
Scatter’d by sin where’er we rove
Vile rebels ’gainst thy pard’ning love.
Verse 7
Confusion, misery, and shame
Our loudly-crying sins require,
Our princes, kings, and fathers claim
Their portion in eternal fire,
For all the downward path have trod,
For all have sinn’d against their God.
Verse 8
But O, forgivenesses are thine
Far above all our hearts conceive,
The glorious property divine
Is still to pity and forgive,
With thee is full redemption found,
And grace doth more than sin abound.
Verse 9
All may in thee our gracious Lord
Forgivenesses and mercies find,
Tho’ we thy warnings have abhor’d,
And cast thy precepts all behind,
The voice divine refus’d t’ obey,
And started from thy plainest way.
Verse 10
All Israel have transgress’d thy law,
And therefore did the curse take place,
Our sins did all thy judgments draw
In showers on our devoted race,
Thou hast fulfill’d thy threatning word,
We bear the fury of the Lord.
Verse 11
Justly we all thine anger bear,
Chastis’d for our iniquity,
Yet made we not our humble prayer,
Yet have we not return’d to thee,
Renounc’d our sins, or long’d to prove
The truth of thy forgiving love.
Verse 12
Therefore the Lord, the jealous God
Hath watch’d to bring the evil day,
Bruis’d us with his avenging rod,
Who would not his still voice obey,
Righteous is God in all his ways:
We forc’d him to withdraw his grace.
Verse 13
Yet now, O Lord our God, at last
Our sins and wickedness we own;
We call to mind thy mercies past,
The antient days of thy renown,
The wonders thou for us hast wrought,
The arm that out of Egypt brought.
Verse 14
O Lord, according to thy love,
Thy utmost power of love, we pray
Thine anger and thy plague remove;
Turn from Jerusalem away
The curse and punishment we feel,
Thou know’st we are thy people still.
Verse 15
The holy mountain of our God,
The city thou hast built below,
Thy people, tho’ disperst abroad,
A proverb of reproach and woe,
We have our fathers’ sins fill’d up,
And drunk the bitter trembling cup.
Verse 16
Now then acknowledge us for thine,
Regard thine humbled servant’s prayer,
And cause on us thy face to shine,
The ruins of thy church repair,
O for the sake of Christ the Lord,
Let all our souls be now restor’d.
Verse 17
My God, incline thine ear, and hear,
Open thine eyes our wastes to see,
Thy fallen des’late Sion chear,
The city which is nam’d by thee;
Not for our cry the grace be shewn,
But hear, in Jesus hear thine own.
Verse 18
All our desert, we own, is hell,
But spare us for thy mercy[’s] sake,
We humbly to thy grace appeal,
And Jesus’ wounds our refuge make,
O let us all thy mercy prove,
The riches of thy pard’ning love.
Verse 19
O Lord, attend, O Lord, forgive,
O Lord, regard our prayer, and do,
Hasten, my God, and bid us live,
The fulness of thy mercy shew,
Thy city, and thy people own,
And perfect all our souls in one.