By A Collection of Hymns

      7 6,7 6,7 6. Psalm lxxvii.
      1 IN time of tribulation
      Hear, Lord, my feeble cries;
      With humble supplication
      To thee my spirit flies;
      My heart with grief is breaking,
      Scarce can my voice complain;
      Mine eyes with tears kept waking,
      Still watch and weep in vain.

      2 The days of old, in vision,
      Bring banished bliss to view;
      The years of lost fruition,
      Their joys in pangs renew;
      Remembered songs of gladness,
      Through nights lone silence brought,
      Strike notes of deeper sadness,
      And stir desponding thought.

      3 Hath God cast off for ever?
      Can time his truth impair?
      His tender mercy never
      Shall I presume to share?
      Hath he his loving kindness
      Shut up in endless wrath?
      No; this is mine own blindness,
      That cannot see his path.

      4 I call to recollection
      The years of his right hand;
      And, strong in his protection,
      Again through faith I stand;
      Thy deeds, O Lord, are wonder;
      Holy are all thy ways;
      The secret place of thunder
      Shall utter forth thy praise.

      5 Thee, with the tribes assembled,
      O God, the billows saw;
      They saw thee, and they trembled,
      Turned, and stood still with awe;
      The clouds shot hail, they lightened;
      The earth reeled to and fro;
      Thy fiery pillar brightened
      The gulf of gloom below.

      6 Thy way is in great waters,
      Thy footsteps are not known;
      Let Adam's sons and daughters
      Confide in thee alone:
      Through the wild sea thou leddest
      Thy chosen flock of yore;
      Still on the waves thou treadest,
      And thy redeemed pass o'er.