O Lord, to Thee I call aloud

1 O LORD, to Thee I call aloud!
O make Thou haste to me,
And hearken to my earnest voice,
Now while I cry to Thee!
2 O let my pray'r before thy face
as fragrant incense rise;
The lifting of my hands accept
as ev'ning sacrifice.

3 O let a constant watch before
my hasty mouth, O LORD;
And of my lips keep Thou the door.
against each evil word.
4 Let not my heart incline to ill;
nor let me ever share
With evil men in evil deeds;
nor on their dainties fare.

5 Me, let the righteous kindly smite,
and that I'll kindly take;
Their just reproofs shall fail so soft,
my head they shall not break.
But as an oil of great esteem,
I shall it highly prize;
And in requital pray for them
in their calamities.

6 And when by judges they shall be
in stony places cast;
My kind words they shall hear, and they
shall sweet be to their taste.
7 About the grave's wide open mouth,
our bones are scatter'd round,
As wood which hewers cut and cleave,
lies scatter'd on the ground.

8 But O JEHOVAH, Lord, to Thee
directed are mine eyes:
My soul, O leave not destitute,
On thee my hope relies.
9 O keep me from the hands of those
who snares have laid for me;
And from the secret nets of those
who work iniquity.
10 Into the nets which they have set
shall the ungodly fall;
While I, for whom they were prepar'd,
pass and escape them all.

Source: The Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs of the Old and New Testament, faithfully translated into English Metre: being the New-England Psalm-Book, revised and improved... (2nd ed.) #PCXLI