Domine Deus meus

Representative Text

1 O Lord my God, I put my trust
and confidence in thee;
Save me from them that me pursue,
and still deliver me:

2 Lest like a lion me he tear
and rend in pieces small,
While there is none to succour me,
and rid me out of thrall.

3 O Lord my God, if I have done
the thing that is not right,
Or else if I be found in fault,
or guilty in thy sight;

4 Or to my friend rewarded ill,
or left him in distress,
Who me pursu'd most cruelly,
and hated me causeless:

5 Then let my foe pursue my soul,
let him my life down thrust
Unto the earth, and also lay
my honour in the dust.

6 Stand up, O Lord, in wrath, because
my foes do rage so fast;
Unto the judgment rise for me
which thou commanded hast.

7 Then shall great nations come to thee,
and know thee by this thing,
If thou declare, for love of them,
thyself as Lord and King.

8 And as thou art of all men Judge,
O Lord, now judge thou me,
According to my righteousness
and my integrity.

The Second Part.

9 Lord, cease the hate of wicked men,
and be the just man's guide,
By whom the secrets of all hearts
are searchèd and descry'd.

10 I take my help to come of God
in all my pain and smart,
Who doth preserve all those that be
of pure and perfect heart.

11 The just man and the wicked both
God judgeth by his power,
So that he feels his mighty hand
ev'n every day and hour.

12 Except he change his mind, I die:
for ev'n as he thinks fit,
He whets his sword, he bends his bow,
aiming where he may hit;

13 And doth prepare his mortal darts
his arrows keen and sharp,
For them that do me persecute,
and do on mischief harp.

14 But 1o, tho' he in travail be
of his dev'lish forecast,
Yet of his mischief once conceiv'd
he brings forth nought at last.

15 He digs a ditch and makes it deep,
in hopes to hurt his brother;
But he shall fall into the pit
that he digg'd up for other.

16 Thus wrong returneth to the hurt
of him in whom it bred,
And all the mischief that he wrought
shall fall on his own head.

17 I will give thanks to God therefore,
that judgeth righteously,
And with my song will praise the name
of him that is most high.

Source: The Whole Book of Psalms #VII

All representative texts • Compare texts ^ top

Author: Thomas Sternhold

Thomas Sternhold was Groom of the Robes to Henry VIII and Edward VI. With Hopkins, he produced the first English version of the Psalms before alluded to. He completed fifty-one; Hopkins and others composed the remainder. He died in 1549. Thirty-seven of his psalms were edited and published after his death, by his friend Hopkins. The work is entitled "All such Psalms of David as Thomas Sternhold, late Groome of the King's Majestye's Robes, did in his Lyfetime drawe into Englyshe Metre." Of the version annexed to the Prayer Book, Montgomery says: "The merit of faithful adherence to the original has been claimed for this version, and need not to be denied, but it is the resemblance which the dead bear to the living." Wood, in his "Athe… Go to person page >

^ top