Psalm 78:4 Fourth Part [Great God, How Oft Did Israel Prove]

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Title:     Psalm 78:4 Fourth Part [Great God, How Oft Did Israel Prove]
Author: Isaac Watts [More Titles by Watts]

Psalm 78:4. 32 &c. Fourth Part
Backsliding and forgiveness; or,
Sin punished, and saints saved.

Great God, how oft did Israel prove
By turns thine anger and thy love!
There in a glass our hearts may see
How fickle and how false they be.

How soon the faithless Jews forgot
The dreadful wonders God had wrought!
Then they provoke him to his face,
Nor fear his power, nor trust his grace.

The Lord consum'd their years in pain,
And made their travels long and vain;
A tedious march thro' unknown ways
Wore out their strength and spent their days.

Oft when they saw their brethren slain,
They mourn'd and sought the Lord again;
Call'd him the Rock of their abode,
Their high Redeemer and their God.

Their prayers and vows before him rise
As flattering words or solemn lies,
While their rebellious tempers prove
False to his covenant and his love.

Yet did his sovereign grace forgive
The men who not deserv'd to live;
His anger oft away he turn'd,
Or else with gentle flame it burn'd.

He saw their flesh was weak and frail,
He saw temptation still prevail
The God of Abraham lov'd them still,
And led them to his holy hill.

[The end]
Isaac Watts's poem: Psalm 78:4 Fourth Part [Great God, How Oft Did Israel Prove]

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