Category Archives: prayer

Who more can crave?

A HYMN TO GOD THE FATHER

Hear me, O God!
A broken heart
Is my best part.
Use still thy rod,
That I may prove
Therein thy Love.

If thou hadst not
Been stern to me,
But left me free,
I had forgot
Myself and thee.

For sin’s so sweet,
As minds ill-bent
Rarely repent,
Until they meet
Their punishment.

Who more can crave
Than thou hast done?
That gav’st a Son,
To free a slave,
First made of nought;
With all since bought.

Sin, Death, and Hell
His glorious name
Quite overcame,
Yet I rebel
And slight the same.

But I’ll come in
Before my loss
Me farther toss,
As sure to win
Under His cross.

-Ben Jonson (1572 – 1637)

PSALM 129

Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord;
O Lord, hear my voice.

Let Thine ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplication.

If Thou shouldest mark iniquities,
O Lord, O Lord, who shall stand?
For with Thee there is forgiveness.

For Thy name’s sake
have I patiently waited for Thee, O Lord;
my soul hath waited patiently for Thy word,
my soul hath hoped in the Lord.

From the morning watch until night,
from the morning watch let Israel hope in the Lord.

For with the Lord there is mercy,
and with Him is plenteous redemption,
and He shall redeem Israel
out of all his iniquities.

BY NIGHT WHEN OTHERS SOUNDLY SLEPT

By night when others soundly slept
And hath at once both ease and Rest,
My waking eyes were open kept
And so to lie I found it best.

I sought him whom my Soul did Love,
With tears I sought him earnestly.
He bow’d his ear down from Above.
In vain I did not seek or cry.

My hungry Soul he fill’d with Good;
He in his Bottle put my tears,
My smarting wounds washt in his blood,
And banisht thence my Doubts and fears.

What to my Saviour shall I give
Who freely hath done this for me?
I’ll serve him here whilst I shall live
And Love him to Eternity.

-Anne Bradstreet

HE WANTS NOT FRIENDS THAT HATH THY LOVE

He wants not friends that hath thy love,
And may converse and walk with thee
And with thy saints, here and above,
With whom forever I must be.

Within the fellowship of saints
Is wisdom, safety and delight;
And when my heart declines and faints,
It’s raisèd by their heat and light.

As for my friends, they are not lost:
The several vessels of thy fleet
Though parted now, by tempests tossed,
Shall safely in the haven meet.

We still are centred all in thee,
Though distant, members of one Head;
Within one family we be,
And by one faith and spirit led.

Before thy throne we daily meet
As joint-petitioners to thee;
In spirit each the other greet,
And shall again each other see.

The heavenly hosts, world without end,
Shall be my company above;
And thou, my best and surest Friend,
Who shall divide me from thy love?

-Richard Baxter 1615-1691