O Thou, the God of All My Praise

Words: Psalm 109:1-12 Scottish Psalter, 1650 (altered*)

Tune: Elizabethtown 8.6.8.6.8.8.8.6 Stephen Pribble, 2002

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 1. O thou the God of all my praise,
       do thou not hold thy peace;
    For mouths of wicked men to speak
       against me do not cease:
    The mouths of vile deceitful men
       against me opened, opened be;
    And with a false and lying tongue
       they have accus-ed me.

 2. They did beset me round about
       with words of hateful spite:
    And though to them no cause I gave,
        against me they did fight.
    They for my love became my foes,
       but I me set, me set to pray.
    Evil for good, hatred for love,
       to me they did repay.

 3. Set thou the wicked over him;
       and upon his right hand
    Give thou his greatest enemy,
       ev'n Satan, leave to stand.
    And when by thee he shall be judged,
       let him, let him condemn-ed be;
    And let his pray'r be turn'd to sin,
       when he shall call on thee.

 4. Few be his days, and in his room
       his charge another take.
    His children let be fatherless,
       his wife a widow make.
    His children let be vagabonds,
       and beg, and beg continually;
    And from their places desolate
       seek bread for their supply.

 5. Let covetous extortioners
       catch all he hath away:
    Of all for which he laboured hath
       let strangers make a prey.
    Let there be none to pity him,
       let there be none, be none at all
    That on his children fatherless
       will let his mercy fall.

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*Altered by the repetition of two syllables in the sixth line of each stanza.