GOD of eternal love,
How fickle are our ways
And yet how oft did Israel prove
Thy constancy of grace.
They saw Thy wonders wrought,
And then Thy praise they sung;
But soon Thy works of power forgot,
And murmured with their tongue.
3 Now they believe His word, While rocks with rivers flow;
Now with their lust provoke the Lord,
And He reduced them low.
Yet when they mourned their faults
He hearkened to their groans ;
Brought His own covenant to His thoughts, And called them still His sons.
Their names were in His book, He saved them from their foes; Oft He chastised, but ne'er forsook The people that He chose.
Let Israel bless the Lord
Who loved their ancient race;
And Christians join the solemn word
Amen, to all the praise.
IVE thanks to God, He reigns above;
Kind are His thoughts, His name is Love;
His mercy ages past have known,
And ages long to come shall own.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord
The wonders of His grace record;
Israel, the nation whom He chose,
And rescued from their mighty foes.
3 When God's almighty arm had broke
Their fetters and the Egyptian yoke,
They traced the desert, wandering round
A wild and solitary ground.
4 There they could find no leading road,
Nor city for a fixed abode;
Nor food nor fountain to assuage
Their burning thirst or hunger's rage.
5 In their distress to God they cried;
God was their Saviour and their guide;
He led their march far wandering round,
'Twas the right path to Canaan's ground.
6 Thus when our first release we gain
From sin's old yoke and Satan's chain,
We have this desert world to pass,
A dangerous and a tiresome place.
7 He feeds and clothes us all the way;
He guides our footsteps lest we stray;
He guards us with a powerful hand,
And brings us to the heavenly land.
8 0 let the saints with joy record
The truth and goodness of the Lord!
How great His works! how kind His ways !
Let every tongue pronounce His praise.
1 YREAT God, how oft did Israel prove
Thy long forbearance and Thy love;
As in a glass, we here may see
How fickle and how frail are we.
2 Thou didst expend their years with pain,
And make their wanderings long and vain;
An irksome march, through unknown ways,
Wore out their strength, consumed their days.
3 Oft, when they saw their brethren slain, They mourned, and sought the Lord again; Called Him their rock, their high abode, Their great Redeemer, and their God.
4 Their prayers and vows before Him rise
In flattering words and solemn lies;
While their rebellious tempers prove
False to His covenant and His love.
5 Yet in His pity God forgave,
And brought them from the threatened grave; His anger oft away He turned,
Or else with gentle flame it burned.
6 He saw their flesh was weak and frail,
He saw temptation still prevail;
The God of Abraham loved them still,
And led them to His holy hill.
H praise our great and gracious Lord,
And call upon His name;
To strains of joy tune every chord,
His mighty acts proclaim:
Tell how He led His chosen race
To Canaan's promised land;
Tell how His covenant of grace
Unchanged shall ever stand.
2 He gave the shadowing cloud by day,
The moving fire by night;
To guide His Israel on their way
He made their darkness light:
And have not we a sure retreat,
A Saviour ever nigh?
The same clear light to guide our feet,
The day-spring from on high?
3 We, too, have manna from above,
"The bread that came from heaven;"
To us the same kind hand of love
Hath living waters given:
A rock we have, from whence the spring
In rich abundance flows;
"That rock is Christ," our Priest, our King,
Who life and health bestows.
4 O let us prize this blessèd food,
And trust our heavenly Guide;
So shall we find death's fearful flood
Serene as Jordan's tide;
And safely reach that happy shore,
The land of peace and rest,
Where angels worship and adore,
In God's own presence blessed.
ESCUED from the hand of strangers
Israel through the desert goes;
Many are his toils and dangers,
Many too are Israel's foes;
But Jehovah
All his wants and dangers knows.
2 Israel's heart is found deceitful,
Prone to murmur and complain;
Israel too is oft forgetful
Of the hand that broke his chain;
But Jehovah
Turns him to Himself again.
3 Through a trackless desert going,
Israel proves the Saviour's love;
Lo! a cloud before Him showing
When and whither He should move;
Israel's journeys
Are directed from above.
4 Though the desert be unfruitful,
Yet is favoured Israel fed;
His supplies are never doubtful,
God provides his daily bread;
And his table
Through the wilderness is spread.
5 Where no pleasant streams are flowing,
In a parched and thirsty land,
Lo! the rock, its Maker knowing,
Pours a stream at His command;
And His people
Wondering own His mighty hand.
HEN Israel, of the Lord beloved,
Wout from the land of bondage came,
Her father's God before her moved,
An awful guide in smoke and flame:
By day along the astonished lands
The cloudy pillar glided slow;
By night Arabia's crimsoned sands
Returned the fiery pillar's glow.
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