Scripture Verse

Unto Thee will I cry, O Lord my rock. Psalm 28:1

Introduction

portrait
Charles U. Link (1869–1938)

Words: From an ear­ly Scot­tish psal­ter. Ver­sions of this hymn were in print in Am­eri­ca as ear­ly as 1872.

Music: Plead­ing, Charles U. Link, in Church and Sun­day School Hym­nal, ed­it­ed by John D. Brunk (Scott­dale, Penn­syl­van­ia: Men­non­ite Pub­lish­ing House, 1902), num­ber 77 (🔊 pdf nwc) Note: This book al­so cre­dits Link (in­cor­rect­ly) with writ­ing the words.

Alternate Tunes:

Lyrics

O Lord, to Thee I cry;
Thou art my rock and trust;
O be not si­lent, lest I die
And slum­ber in the dust.

O hear my ear­nest cry,
Thy fa­vor I en­treat;
Hear, while I lift im­plor­ing hands
Before Thy mer­cy seat.

O draw me not away
With men who live in sin,
Who to their neigh­bors speak of peace,
While mal­ice lurks with­in.

Repay them for their deeds,
And vile at­tempts, O Lord,
And for the do­ings of their hands,
Return a just re­ward.

Because they dis­re­gard
The works the Lord hath done,
By Him they shall not be up­built
But ut­ter­ly o’er­thrown.

Now bless­èd be the Lord,
He heard me when I cried;
Jehovah is my strength and shield,
On Him my heart re­lied.

I help from Him ob­tained,
And there­fore give Him praise;
And while my heart ex­ults with joy,
My song to Him I raise.

God is His people’s strength,
And His Mes­si­ah’s pow­er;
Save, bless, and feed Thy her­it­age,
Exalt them ev­er­more.