O God, my Ref-uge, hear my cries
Be-hold my flow-ing tears,
For earth and hell my hurt de-vise,
And tri-umph in my fears.
Their rage is lev-eled at my life,
My soul with guilt they load,
And fill my thoughts with in-ward strife
To shake my hope in God.
With in-ward pain my heart-strings sound,
I groan with ev-ery breath;
Horr-or and fear be-set me round
A-mongst the shades of death.
O were I like a fea-thered dove,
And in-no-cence had wings;
I'd fly, and make a long re-move
From all these rest-less things.
Let me to some wild des-ert go,
And find a peace-ful home,
Where storms of mal-ice nev-er blow,
Temp-ta-tions nev-er come.
Vain hopes, and vain in-ven-tions all
To 'scape the rage of hell!
The might-y God on whom I call
Can save me here as well.
By morn-ing light I'll seek His face,
At noon re-peat my cry,
The night shall hear me ask His grace,
Nor will He long de-ny.
God shall pre-serve my soul from fear,
Or shield me when a-fraid;
Ten thou-sand an-gels must ap-pear
If He com-mand their aid.
I cast my bur-dens on the Lord,
The Lord sus-tains them all;
My cour-age rests up-on His Word
That saints shall nev-er fall.
My high-est hopes shall not be vain,
My lips shall spread His praise;
While cru-el and de-ceit-ful men
Scarce live out half their days.
*Music: Composed 2001 by Mitch Cervinka. Donated to the Public Domain for the unrestricted use of Christ's church.