Righteous, Sin-Avenging God

Righteous

sin-av­eng­ing God

To Thee what shall we say?

Dare we de­pre­cate the rod

Or still for res­pite pray?

Thou hast giv’n our sin­ful land

A long­er

and a long­er space

But we still Thy love with­stand

And mock Thee to Thy face.

Thou in dan­ger’s dark­est hour

Didst on our side ap­pear

Snatch us from the wast­ing pow­er

Of war and Sa­tan near:

Whom the winds and seas ob­ey

Thou

Lord

Thy migh­ty arm didst show

Chase the ali­en hosts away

And stop th’in­vad­ing foe.

Not our pro­vi­dence or sword

Did us from ru­in save

Our De­liv­er­er is the Lord

Let Him the glo­ry have:

But alas

we have not feared

Thy power

or ren­dered Thee Thy due

Have not hon­ored

or rev­ered

A God we nev­er knew.

Viler still

if that can be

We have been in Thy sight

Scorned to give the praise to Thee

And robbed Thee of Thy right

Wronged Thine in­ter­pos­ing grace

Denied Thy pro­vi­den­tial care

Hardened as th’Egypt­ian race

Thine ut­most plague to dare.

What can our de­struct­ion stop

Or now rev­erse our doom?

God the just must give us up

And let the ru­in come:

Lo! He whets His glit­ter­ing sword

His hand doth hold of judg­ment take

Rises the al­migh­ty Lord

A guil­ty land to shake!

O al­migh­ty Lord

we own

Thine aw­ful right­eous­ness

Make in us Thy good­ness known

Who all our sins con­fess

We who trem­ble at the rod

And meek­ly to the judg­ment bow

O re­mem­ber us for good

Who sue for mer­cy now!