Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/Psalm CXIX 1
PSALM CXIX.
"Unless thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished in my affliction."
HAD not thy righteous law been my delight,
When friends forsook and earthly comforts fled,
And cruel foes display'd their envious spite,
Most surely I had sunk among the dead,
And cold oblivion's dew had rested on my head.
Yet still I live, Oh, let my praise arise,
To Him who, cloth'd with majesty and might,
And seated in his temple of the skies,
Sends gifts to man, with peace, and life, and light;
But thou, my soul, art vile and sinful in his sight.
Oh, lead me from those paths with error fraught,
Whose snares too oft my heedless steps betide;
Restrain the hasty speech, and roving thought,
And fear of feeble man, and causeless pride,
And all the secret ills that in my heart reside.