3 "This is the man did once pretend
"God was his father and his friend;
"If God the blessed lov'd him so,
"Why doth he fail to help him now?"
4 Barbarous people! cruel priests!
How they stood round like savage beasts!
Like lions gaping to devour,
When God had left him in their power.
5 They wound his head, his hands, his feet,
Till streams of blood each other meet;
By lot his garments they divide
And mock the pangs in which he dy'd.
6 But God, his Father, heard his cry:
Rais'd from the dead he reigns on high.
The nations learn his righteousness,
And humble sinners taste his grace.
Psalm 23:1. L. M.
God our Shepherd.
1 My shepherd is the living Lord;
Now shall my wants be well supply'd
His providence and holy word
Become my safety and my guide.
2 In pastures where salvation grows
He makes me feed, he makes me rest;
There living water gently flows,
And all the food's divinely blest.
3 My wandering feet his ways mistake,
But he restores my soul to peace,
And leads me for his mercy's sake,
In the fair paths of righteousness.
4 Tho' I walk thro' the gloomy vale,
Where death and all its terrors are,
My heart and hope shall never fail,
For God my shepherd's with me there.
5 Amidst the darkness and the deeps
Thou art my comfort, thou my stay;
Thy staff supports my feeble steps,
Thy rod directs my doubtful way.