Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PSALM 41. BEATUS QUI INTELLIGIT, by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PSALM 41. BEATUS QUI INTELLIGIT, by                    
First Line: He blessed is who with wise temper can
Last Line: O so! O be it so!


He blessed is who with wise temper can
Judge of th' afflicted man,
For God shall him deliver in the time
When most his troubles climb.
The Lord will keep his life yet safe and sound
With blessings of the ground,
And will not him unto the will expose
Of them that be his foes.

When bed from rest becomes his seat of woe,
In God his strength shall grow,
And turn his couch, where sick he couched late,
To well recovered state.
Therefore I said in most infirmity,
Have mercy, Lord, on me;
O heal my soul, let there Thy cure begin
Where 'gainst Thee lay my sin.

My foes' evil words their hate of me display
While thus, alas, they say:
When, when will death o'ertake this wretched wight
And his name perish quite?
Their courteous visitings are courting lies,
They inward evils disguise,
Even heaps of wicked thoughts which straight they show
As soon as out they go.

For then their hateful heads close whispering be
With hurtful thoughts to me.
Now is he wracked say they; lo, there he lies
Who never more must rise.
O yea, my friend to whom I did impart
The secrets of my heart,
My friend I say, who at my table sate,
Did kick against my state.

Therefore, O Lord, abandoned thus of all,
On me let mercy fall,
And raise me up that I may once have might
Their merits to requite.
But what? This doth already well appear
That I to Thee am dear,
Since foes nor have, nor shall have cause to be
Triumphing over me.

But triumph well may I, whom Thou dost stay
In my sound rightful way,
Whom Thou, O place of places all, dost place
For aye before Thy face.
So then be blessed now, then, at home, abroad,
Of Israel the God.
World without end, let still His blessing flow;
O so! O be it so!





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