Second Version (L.M.)

8,8,8,8

^1Lord, hear my pray'r, and let my cry

Have speedy access unto thee;

^2In day of my calamity

O hide not thou thy face from me.

Hear when I call to thee; that day

An answer speedily return:

^3My days, like smoke, consume away,

And, as an hearth, my bones do burn.

^4My heart is wounded very sore,

And withered, like grass doth fade:

I am forgetful grown therefore

To take and eat my daily bread.

^5By reason of my smart within,

And voice of my most grievous groans,

My flesh consumed is, my skin,

All parch'd, doth cleave unto my bones.

^6The pelican of wilderness,

The owl in desert, I do match;

^7And, sparrow-like, companionless,

Upon the house's top, I watch.

^8I all day long am made a scorn,

Reproach'd by my malicious foes:

The madmen are against me sworn,

The men against me that arose.

^9For I have ashes eaten up,

To me as if they had been bread;

And with my drink I in my cup

Of bitter tears a mixture made.

^10Because thy wrath was not appeas'd,

And dreadful indignation:

Therefore it was that thou me rais'd,

And thou again didst cast me down.

^11My days are like a shade alway,

Which doth declining swiftly pass;

And I am withered away,

Much like unto the fading grass.

^12But thou, O Lord, shalt still endure,

From change and all mutation free,

And to all generations sure

Shall thy remembrance ever be.

^13Thou shalt arise, and mercy yet

Thou to mount Sion shalt extend:

Her time for favour which was set,

Behold, is now come to an end.

^14Thy saints take pleasure in her stones,

Her very dust to them is dear.

^15All heathen lands and kingly thrones

On earth thy glorious name shall fear.

^16God in his glory shall appear,

When Sion he builds and repairs.

^17He shall regard and lend his ear

Unto the needy's humble pray'rs:

Th' afflicted's pray'r he will not scorn.

^18All times this shall be on record:

And generations yet unborn

Shall praise and magnify the Lord.

^19He from his holy place look'd down,

The earth he view'd from heav'n on high;

^20To hear the pris'ner's mourning groan,

And free them that are doom'd to die;

^21That Sion, and Jerus'lem too,

His name and praise may well record,

^22When people and the kingdoms do

Assemble all to praise the Lord.

^23My strength he weaken'd in the way,

My days of life he shortened.

^24My God, O take me not away

In mid-time of my days, I said:

Thy years throughout all ages last.

^25Of old thou hast established

The earth's foundation firm and fast:

Thy mighty hands the heav'ns have made.

^26They perish shall, as garments do,

But thou shalt evermore endure;

As vestures, thou shalt change them so;

And they shall all be changed sure:

^27But from all changes thou art free;

Thy endless years do last for aye.

^28Thy servants, and their seed who be,

Establish'd shall before thee stay.