Poems (Follen)/Part of the Forty-Second Psalm

by Eliza Lee Cabot Follen

PART OF THE FORTY-SECOND PSALM.

As the frightened, stricken deer
 Pants for cooling water-brooks,
So my spirit thirsts for thee,
 So to thee, my God, it looks.

Night and day have seen my tears;
 I have felt thy chastening rod:
When shall I be nearer thee;
 When behold the living God?

O'er departed hours I mourn,
 When I joyful sang thy praise
With the grateful, happy throng,
 Who love to keep thy holy days.

Why art thou cast down, my soul?
 Why disquieted in vain?
Hope in God; for thou shalt yet
 Praise his boundless love again.

O, my God, my spirit faints;
 Waves of sorrow o'er me roll;
Terror, like a sullen deep.
 Overwhelms my sinking soul.

Yet thy loving-kindness, Lord,
 Smooths affliction's stormy sea:
In the night I hear thy voice;
 Morning lifts my heart to thee.

Why art thou cast down, my soul?
 Faint not at the chastening rod!
Hope in Him; He is thy friend;
 He 's thy Saviour and thy God.