Classic Poem

SECTION I .

Habakkuk's Prayer.

Lord, I have heard thy awful speech,
Which struck my heart with fears;
Revive thy work, Lord, I beseech,
Amidst the woeful years;

Amidst the seventy years of thrall
Make known thy faithfulness;
In wrath, though just, to mind recall
Free mercy prone to bless.

[Our fathers in their lowest state
Thine arm did safe uphold;
Let hope revive while I relate
Thy wonders done of old.]

From Teman came the holy One:
God came from Paran-hill:
O'er all the heav'ns his glory shone:
His praise the earth did fill.

His brightness pure outshone the light,
Beams darted from each side;
And there he pleas'd to shew his might,
Yet more his might to hide.

Before him went the pestilence,
And burning at his feet;
Hot plagues went forth in Egpyt, thence,
To guard his folks retreat.

He stood and mete the promis'd land:
He look'd but from above
Upon the heathen nations grand,
And them asunder drove.

States, that like moveless mountains were,
He scatter'd all abroad;
Perpetual hills did bow with fear
At the rebuke of God.

[On him may Isra'l's children place
Their hope in ev'ry thrall!]
His ways of pow'r, and truth, and grace,
Are everlasting all.

[They're still the same to dash and shake
The force that Zion harms:]
Lo! Cushan tent and Midian's quake,
When God appears in arms!

Did heav'n against the rivers frown?
Did wrath the sea betide?
That thou didst mount thy horse, and on
Salvation's chariot ride!

Nay, naked quite thy bow was made,
As thou didst say and swear
To Isra'l's tribes, whose conquest spread
To make thy truth appear.

With rivers to refresh thy flocks
Earth cleft asunder seems;
Thou turn'dst the floods to crystal rocks,
The rocks to crystal streams.

On sight of thee did mountains quake,
The flowing waves past by;
The deeps with noisy roaring spake,
And hands uplifted high.

Both sun and moon stood still, and bright
Within the circling spheres,
To wait thy shining arrows' flight,
And speed thy glitt'ringspears.

Thou on thy march through Canaan's climes,
In fury hot like fire,
Didst judge the heathen for their crimes,
And thresh them in thine ire.

Thy march was on thy people's head,
To save them as thine own;
To save them, and their armies lead
By thine anointed One.

Crown'd heads thou from their royal seats
Of wickedness didst wound:
Mad'st bare from foot to neck; their states
Demolish'd to the ground.

The villages of Canaan's land
Shar'd of their cities' fate;
With Isra'l's staves and arms in hand,
Thou strackest through their pate.

They like a tempest fierce came out
To scatter, drive and foil:
They join'd in hope, by sacred rout,
Poor Isra'l's tribes to spoil.

But thou, to dash the sons of pride,
And Isra'l's triumphs crown,
Traversing seas, didst conqu'ring ride
Great heaps of waters down.

Yet now, when threaten'd woes I heard
Would light on Israel's sons,
My bowels quak'd; I greatly fear'd,
Corruption seiz'd my bones.

With quiv'ring lips at th' awful voice,
Which did the heart-quake raise,
I trembled, that I might rejoice,
And rest in troublous days:

For when with furious troops the foe
Comes up in full career,
He'll fiercely down the people mow,
And into pieces tear.

SECTION II .

The Confidence of his Faith.

[With sword pale famine will complot;
But silence faithless fear:]
Although the fig-tree blossom not,
Nor fruit on vines appear;

Though th' olive's labour fail aloof,
Fields yield no meat at all;
Though flocks be from the folds cut off,
And cattle from the stall:

Yet in the Lord rejoice I will,
In spite of all annoy;
The God of my salvation still
Shall be my hope and joy.

The Lord's my strength, he'll make my feet
Like hinds t' out-run my woes.
He'll make me walk in heights, to smite
And tread upon my foes.