In Time of Tribulation - James Montgomery

In time of tribulation
Hear, Lord, my feeble cries;

In time of tribulation
Hear, Lord, my feeble cries;
With humble supplication
To thee my spirit flies;
My heart with grief is breaking,
Scarce can my voice complain;
Mine eyes with tears kept waking,
Still watch and weep in vain.

The days of old, in vision,
Bring banished bliss to view;
The years of lost fruition,
Their joys in pangs renew;
Remembered songs of gladness,
Through nights lone silence brought,
Strike notes of deeper sadness,
And stir desponding thought.

Hath God cast off for ever?
Can time his truth impair?
His tender mercy never
Shall I presume to share?
Hath he his loving kindness
Shut up in endless wrath?
No; this is mine own blindness,
That cannot see his path.

I call to recollection
The years of his right hand;
And, strong in his protection,
Again through faith I stand;
Thy deeds, O Lord, are wonder;
Holy are all thy ways;
The secret place of thunder
Shall utter forth thy praise.

Thee, with the tribes assembled,
O God, the billows saw;
They saw thee, and they trembled,
Turned, and stood still with awe;
The clouds shot hail, they lightened;
The earth reeled to and fro;
Thy fiery pillar brightened
The gulf of gloom below.

Thy way is in great waters,
Thy footsteps are not known;
Let Adam’s sons and daughters
Confide in thee alone:
Through the wild sea thou leddest
Thy chosen flock of yore;
Still on the waves thou treadest,
And thy redeemed pass o’er.

James Montgomery 

Psalm lxxvii.