God Our Portion

O God, my God, my all Thou art;
Ere shines the dawn of rising day,
Thy sovereign light within my heart,
Thy all-enlivening power display.

For Thee my thirsty soul does pant,
While in this desert land I live:
And hungry as I am and faint,
Thy love alone can comfort give.

In a dry land, behold, I place
My whole desire on Thee, O Lord:
And more I joy to gain Thy grace
Than all earth's treasures can afford.

In holiness within Thy gates
Of old oft have I sought for Thee:
Again my longing spirit waits
That fulness of delight to see.

More dear than life itself, Thy love
My heart and tongue shall still employ;
And to declare Thy praise will prove
My peace, my glory, and my joy.

In blessing Thee with grateful songs
My happy life shall glide away;
The praise that to Thy name belongs
Hourly with lifted hands I'll pay.

Abundant sweetness, while I sing
Thy love, my ravish'd soul o'erflows;
Secure in Thee, my God and King,
Of glory that no period knows.

Thy name, O Lord, upon my bed
Dwells on my lips, and fires my thought;
With trembling awe, in midnight shade,
I muse on all Thy hands have wrought.

In all I do I feel Thy aid;
Therefore Thy greatness will I sing,
O God, who bidd'st my heart be glad
Beneath the shadow of Thy wing.

jo My soul draws nigh, and cleaves to Thee:
Then let or earth or hell assail,
Thy mighty hand shall set me free
For whom Thou sav'st, he ne'er shall fail.