Why dost thou, Lord, conceal thy face

Verse 1
Why dost thou, Lord, conceal thy face,
With-hold the joyous sense of grace,
And reckon me thy foe?
If sin provokes thee to depart,
And keeps thy presence from my heart,
The secret evil shew.

Verse 2
Still I enquire and weep, and pray;
Thy comforts dost thou take away,
To punish, or to prove?
I wait thy mind to comprehend,
I long to answer all the end
Of thy mysterious love.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled “Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?”—[Job] xiii. 24. Introduced in Charles Wesley, Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures, Vol. 1 (Bristol: Farley, 1762). Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 9 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 244.
Publishing: Public Domain