Amos 4:7–8I…withheld rain from you…I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Yet you have not returned to Me,
says the Lord.
Words: From the Church Hymn Book, by Paul Henkel, first edition (New Market: Virginia, 1816), number 340, alt. Note: The 1816 edition of this hymnal does not name the author. Paul Henkel’s son, Ambrose Henkel, identifies his father as the author by a double dagger symbol (‡) in the 1838 edition, page 657.
Music: First Mode Melody Thomas Tallis (1505–1585) (🔊 pdf nwc).
Alternate Tune:
If you know where to get a better picture of Henkel,
Lord, look on this, our panting earth!
Behold our dying grain:
Our land oppressed with cruel dearth,
And groans for want of rain.
Our land is like the barren sands,
Beneath the burning sky!
And all her product withering stands,
And every plant must die.
All living creatures feel distressed,
And all their comfort fails;
The whole of nature is oppressed,
Because Thy wrath prevails.
Thy judgments Lord! are very just,
If Thou shouldst never grant
A single rain to lay the dust,
That could revive a plant.
Our minds are filled with dread and fear,
And conscious of our guilt;
The curses we deserve to bear,
They will, and must be felt.
O, we should feel a heavy hand!
A thing we never knew;
Should drought continue in our land,
Till famine would ensue.
With us it soon may be the case
As elsewhere it hath been;
Our wretched land in every place
Is filled and stained with sin.
Have mercy Lord, we humbly pray!
Send us a gracious rain.
O turn Thy fearful threats away!
Revive our hopes again.