PSALM LXXXI.

George Burgess

With harp's and psaltry's pleasant tune,
With trumpets long and loud,
Rejoice beneath the early moon,
Amid the festal crowd.

For such the witness God decreed,
And such the law he gave,
To Jacob's sons, to Joseph's seed,
No longer Egypt's slave;

When, at his captive people's groan,
He came with judgments dread,
And forth, from realms of speech unknown,
Our rescued armies led.

'I from the load thy shoulder freed,
From servile clay thy hands;
I heard thee in thine hour of need,
And broke the tyrant's bands.

I answered thee from clouds on high,
Where storms and thunder hide;
I prov'd thee where, mid deserts dry,
The rock pour'd out its tide.

'Bear witness, people of my love;
O Israel, give thine ear:
Seek thou no other god above,
No stranger's idol fear.

I am the Lord, thy God of old;
Th' Egyptian chains I clave:
Oh, wide thy thirsty lips unfold,
And thirst no more shall crave.'

My people would not hear my voice;
my presence Israel spurn'd:
I gave them to their stubborn choice,
And where they would they turn'd.

Oh, had they listen'd, had they trod
Where God had been their Guide!
Their foes had crouch'd beneath my rod,
Their tyrant's boast had died.

The Lord's proud haters at their feet,
Their reign no more had ceas'd:
Their store had been the fatt'ning wheat,
The rock, their honey'd feast.'