O Lord, My Hope and Confidence

O Lord

my hope and con­fi­dence

Is placed in Thee alone;

O let Thy serv­ant nev­er be

Into con­fu­sion thrown.

And let me

in Thy right­eous­ness

From Thee de­liv­er­ance have;

Let me es­cape—in­cline Thine ear

Unto me

and me save.

Be Thou my dwell­ing-rock

to which

I ev­er may resort:

Thou gav’st com­mand­ment me to save

Thou art my rock and fort.

Free me

my God

from wick­ed hands

Hands cru­el and un­just:

For Thou

O Lord God

art my hope

And from my youth my trust.

Thou from the womb didst hold me up;

Thou art the same that me

Out of my mother’s bow­els took;

I give my praise to Thee.

To many I a won­der am;

Thou art my re­fuge strong:

Filled let my mouth be with Thy praise

And hon­or all day long.

O do not cast me off

when aged

And frail for all to see;

Lord

when my strength de­cay­èd is

O

do not for­sake me.

For those that are mine ene­mies

Against me speak with hate;

Lo

they in coun­sel dark do plot

And for my soul lay wait.

They said

God leaves him—now pur­sue

And take: none will him save.

Be Thou not far from me

my God:

Thy speedy help I crave.

Confound

con­sume them

that un­to

My soul are ene­mies:

Clothe them with guilt

remorse and shame

That do my hurt de­vise.

But I with e’er un­ceas­ing prayer

Will hope con­tin­ual­ly;

And yet with prais­es more and more

I will Thee mag­ni­fy.

Thy jus­tice and Thy pow­er to save

My mouth abroad shall show

E’en all the day; for I there­of

The num­bers do not know.

And I will cons­tant­ly go on

In strength of God the Lord;

And Thine own righteous­ness

e’en Thine

Alone

I will re­cord.

For ev­en from my youth

O God

By Thee I have been taught;

And hi­ther­to I have de­clared

The won­ders Thou hast wrought.

Now

Lord

O leave me not

when I

Old and gray-head­ed grow:

Till to this age Thy strength and pow­er

To all to come I show.

And Thy most per­fect righ­teous­ness

O Lord

is ve­ry high

Who hast so great things done: O God

Who is like un­to Thee?

Thou

Lord

who great ad­ver­si­ties

And sore

to me didst show

Shalt quick­en

and bring me again

From depths of earth be­low.

My great­ness and my power Thou wilt

Increase

and far ex­tend:

On ev­ery side

against all grief

Thou wilt me com­fort send.

Thee

e’en Thy truth

I’ll al­so praise

My God

with psal­te­ry:

Thou Ho­ly One of Is­ra­el

With harp I’ll sing to Thee.

My lips shall much re­joice in Thee

When I Thy prais­es sound;

My soul

which Thou re­deemèd hast

In joy shall much abound.

My tongue Thy jus­tice shall pro­claim

Continuing all day long;

For they con­found­ed are

and shamed

That seek to do me wrong.