Poems (Toke)/Psalm II

by Emma Toke

PSALM II.

HY do the heathen fiercely rage,
 The people strive in vain,
While kings and princes counsel take
 Against the Lord again?
Yea, 'gainst His own Anointed One
 They lift their proud array;
But we will burst their firmest bonds,
 And cast their cords away.

For He who dwells enshrined in light,
 Shall laugh their rage to scorn,
Shall stretch His hand in judgment forth,
 And cause their tribes to mourn.
He shall speak to them in His wrath,
 And vex the nations still;—
Yet have I firmly set My King
 On Zion's holy hill.

That high decree I will declare,
 For God hath said to Me,
Thou art mine only Son! this day
 Have I begotten Thee.
Now ask, and every heathen land,
 Earth's utmost wave-heat shore,
Is Thine. Thou shalt possess them all,
 And reign for evermore.

Then Thou shalt place their guilty tribes
 Beneath an iron sway,
Dissolve their impious rebel league,
 And dash them all away.
Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings,
 And hear a warning voice;
Yea, turn and serve the Lord with fear
 And tremblingly rejoice.

Oh, kiss the Son, ere He shall come
 To steep the earth in blood:
It He be wrath, how blest are they
 Whose trust is in their God!

E.

October 9, 1852.