Pastor Jeff O’ Neil

Recommended Tune: St Kilda, Stracathro

Psalm 79

¹O God, the heathen enter’d have
Thine heritage; by them
Defiled is thy house: on heaps
They laid Jerusalem.

²The bodies of thy servants they
Have cast forth to be meat
To rav’nous fowls; thy dear saints’ flesh
They gave to beasts to eat.

³Their blood about Jerusalem
Like water they have shed;
And there was none to bury them
When they were slain and dead.

⁴Unto our neighbours a reproach
Most base become are we;
A scorn and laughingstock to them
That round about us be.

⁵How long, LORD, shall thine anger last?
Wilt thou still keep the same?
And shall thy fervent jealousy
Burn like unto a flame?

⁶On heathen pour thy fury forth,
That have thee never known,
And on those kingdoms which thy name
Have never call’d upon.

⁷For these are they who Jacob have
Devoured cruelly;
And they his habitation
Have caused waste to lie.

⁸Against us mind not former sins;
Thy tender mercies show;
Let them prevent us speedily,
For we’re brought very low.

⁹For thy name’s glory help us, Lord,
Who hast our Saviour been:
Deliver us; for thy name’s sake,
O purge away our sin.

¹⁰Why say the heathen, Where’s their God?
Let him to them be known;
When those who shed thy servants’ blood
Are in our sight o’erthrown.

¹¹O let the pris’ner’s sighs ascend
Before thy sight on high;
Preserve those in thy mighty pow’r
That are design’d to die.

¹²And to our neighbours’ bosom cause
It sev’n–fold render’d be,
Ev’n the reproach wherewith they have,
O Lord, reproached thee.

¹³So we thy folk, and pasture–sheep,
Shall give thee thanks always;
And unto generations all
We will show forth thy praise.