Scripture Verse

If I send pestilence among My people, if My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:13–14

Introduction

portrait
The Angel of Death
Jules Gabriel Levasseur (1823–1907), after Jules-Élie Delaunay (1828–1891)
Wikimedia Commons

Words: James Mont­go­me­ry, Orig­in­al Hymns for Pub­lic, Pri­vate and So­cial De­vo­tion (Lon­don: Long­man, Brown, Green & Long­mans, 1853), num­ber 289, alt. For a Day of Hu­mi­li­a­tion dur­ing the Pre­va­lence of the Cho­le­ra.

Music: Pa­ris Mi­chael Lon­ne­ke, 2005 (🔊 pdf nwc). The com­pos­er grants per­mis­sion to re­pro­duce the mu­sic for Chris­tian use.

Alternate Tunes:

  • Old Mar­tyrs Psalms (Ed­in­burgh Scot­land: 1615) (🔊 pdf nwc)
  • York Scot­tish Psal­ter, 1615 (🔊 pdf nwc)
portrait
Michael Lonneke (1943–)

Lyrics

O let the land mourn through its coasts,
The king lay by his state;
And princes, rulers, at their posts,
Awhile sit desolate.

Let priests and people, high and low,
Rich, poor, and great, and small,
Invoke, in fellowship of woe,
The Maker of them all.

For God hath summoned from His place
Death, in a direr form,
To waken, warn, and scourge our race,
Than earthquake, fire, or storm.

Let churches weep within their pale,
And families apart;
Let each in secrecy bewail
The plague of his own heart.

So, while the land bemoans its sin,
The pestilence may cease,
And mercy, tempering wrath, bring in
Not health alone, but peace—

The peace of God, which passeth thought,
Keep every heart and mind,
Till all, by this affliction taught,
Be to His will resigned.