O God, Thou hast deceived our hope

Verse 1
O God, thou hast deceiv’d our hope,
Our surest hope of lasting peace,
Hast given thy wretched people up,
And scourg’d us for our wickedness;
Abandon’d to the slaughtering sword,
We bear the fury of the Lord.

Verse 2
My furious wrath they still shall know:
And lo! A mighty scattering wind
Shall from the barren mountains blow,
And sweep to hell the faithless kind,
Their lives I will no more reprieve,
But now the final sentence give.

Verse 3
The spoiler as a cloud shall rise,
The whole devoted land o’erspread:
His chariot as a whirlwind flies,
His horses match the eagle’s speed;
Alas for us! Shall Sion say,
To all our foes an helpless prey!

Verse 4
O Sion, wash thy heart from sin,
So shalt thou my salvation see:
How long shall evil lodge within
The temple that belongs to me?
Thy vain designs and thoughts remove,
T’ admit the God of pard’ning love.

Verse 5
For lo! A voice with awful sound
Declares the scourge and judgment near,
Go, call the hostile nations round,
Before Jerusalem t’ appear,
Summon from far th’ embattled powers,
To shout against her trembling towers.

Verse 6
Her watchful foe shall keep her in,
And close besiege on every side,
Chastise the rebels for their sin:
Because thou hast my wrath defi’d,
Refus’d to tremble at my frown,
And forc’d my ling’ring judgments down.

Verse 7
Thy doings have procur’d the woe,
And pull’d it on thy guilty head:
The fatal cause with horror know,
Thy sin in thy chastisement read,
Feel in the bitter, penal smart,
The evil of the life and heart.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: "The Fourth Chapter of Jeremiah Part III." Introduced in Charles Wesley, Hymns for the Year 1756, Particularly for the Fast-Day, February 6 (Bristol: E. Farley, 1756). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 6 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 85.
Publishing: Public Domain