Domine exaudi

Verse 1

Hear thou my prayer, O Lord, and let my cry come unto thee, In time of trouble do hot hide thy face away from me:

Verse 2

Incline thine ear to me, make haste to hear me, when I call; For as the smoke doth fade, so do my days consume and fall:

Verse 3

And as an earth my bones are burnt, my heart is smitten dead, And withers like the grass, that I forget to eat lay bread.

Verse 4

By reason of my groaning voice, my bones cleave to my skin; As pelican in wilderness, such case now am I in.

Verse 5

And as an owl in desert is, lo, I am such alone: I watch, and as a sparrow on the house-top am alone:

Verse 6

For daily in reproachful wise my foes they do me scorn; And them, that mad upon me are, against me they have sworn.

Verse 7

Surely with ashes as with bread my hunger I have fill'd, And mingled have my drink with tears, that from my eyes distill'd.

Verse 8

Because of thy displeasure, Lord, thy wrath and great disdain; For thou hast set me up on high, and cast me down again.

Verse 9

The days wherein I pass my life are like the fleeting shade; And I am wither'd like the grass, that soon away doth fade:

Verse 10

But thou, O Lord, for ever dost remain in steady place, And thy remembrance ever doth abide from race to race.

Verse 11

Thou wilt arise, and mercy thou to Sion wilt extend, The time of mercy, now the time foreset is come to end:

Verse 12

For in the very stones thereof thy servants do delight, And on the dust thereof they have compassion in their sight.

Verse 13

Then shall the heathen people fear the Lord's most holy Name, And all the kings on earth shall dread his glory and his fame.

Verse 14

Then when the Lord the mighty God again shall Sion rear, And then when he most nobly in his glory shall appear;

Verse 15

To prayer of the poor destitute when he himself shall bend, When he shall not disdain unto their suits for to attend:

Verse 16

This shall be written for the age, that after shall succeed; The people that are yet unborn the Lord's renown shall spread.

Verse 17

From his high sanctuary he hath looked down below, And out of heav'n most high he hath beheld the earth also:

Verse 18

That of the mourning captive he might hear the woful cry, And that he might deliver those, that were condemn'd to die:

Verse 19

That they in Sion may declare the Lord's most holy Name, And in Jerusalem set forth the praises of the same;

Verse 20

Then when the people of the land and kingdoms with accord, Shall be assembled to perform their service to the Lord.

Verse 21

My former force of strength he hath abated in the way, And shorter he did cut my days, thus I therefore did say,

Verse 22

My God, in midst of all my days now take me not away; Thy years endure eternally, and never do decay:

Verse 23

Thou the foundations of the earth before all time hast laid; The heav'ns also, they are the work which thy own hands have made:

Verse 24

They all shall perish and decay, but thou remainest still; And they shall all in time wax old, ev'n as a garment will:

Verse 25

Thou as a vesture shalt them change, and changèd they shall be; But thou dost still abide the same, thy years do never flee.

Verse 26

The children of thy servants shall continue and endure, And in thy sight their happy seed for ever shall stand sure.