I reioyced, when they sayd to me, We wil go into the house of the Lord. (Psalme 122:1 Geneva Bible)

Proofs of God's Power and Wisdom in the Creation and Preservation of the World
by Ralph Erskine (1685-1752)

he Lord Jehovah built the skies,
And reared this stately frame;
The wide creation testifies
The greatness of His name.

The liquid element below
Was gathered by His hand;
The rolling seas together flow,
And leave the solid land.

To Him, the Maker, does pertain
What in the ocean is;
The finny people of the main,
And monsters there, are His.

The dusky shades of hell that lie,
Wrapped up in webs of night.
May well elude the solar eye,
But not th’Almighty’s sight.

Death and destruction do in vain,
Their sable covering spread,
And in their secret vaults enchain,
Or fast lock up the dead.

The eye of the Almighty does
Their spoils entire survey;
And no distinction ever knows
Between the night and day.

He, o’er the airy empty place,
In pomp displays on high
The wide expanse, and ample space,
Of all the northern sky.

The ponderous earth, at His command,
Hangs in the ambient air;
No pillars bear the fabric grand,
But just His will and care.

He bids the clouds with water pent,
Imprisoned tempests chain;
Then their big floating wombs, unrent,
Suspend the birth of rain.

Again He bids their bosom ope,
And down the blessing pours,
To feed the lab’ring farmer’s hope
With warm prolific show’rs.

Lest His high throne, so dazzling bright,
By naked eyes unseen,
With too much glory oppress our sight,
He spreads His clouds between.

He raises rocky fences round
The spacious swelling deep,
Which do the raging billows bound,
Mad waves in prison keep.

That while the rule of day and night,
The sun and moon maintain,
The rolling seas may have no might
To drown the earth again.

High hills that pillars seem and props
Of heaven’s expanded roof,
Do quake, and bow their towering tops
Aghast at His reproof.

He cleaves the main, bids billows rise,
Then curbs the swelling tide;
How soon they cope with clouds and skies,
So soon He lays their pride.

The trembling waves at His command,
Creep softly to the shore;
Storms over-awed do silent stand,
Do quickly cease to roar.

Thus lawless seas He does control,
Diversifies the deep;
He makes the sleeping billows roll,
The rolling billows sleep.

He spreads the heavens, their azure face
He garnished by His might;
And did them most profusely grace
With constellations bright.

His hand the crooked serpent made;
But who can speak his art?
Of whom all’s nothing that is said,
We know so small a part.

Who can the utmost force explore
Of His almighty hands?
For even the thunder of His pow’r
What mortal understands?

—from Worthy Is the Lamb (Soli Deo Gloria, 2004).

salme 22 (Geneva Bible)
To him that excelleth vpon Aiieleth Hasshahar. A Psalme of Dauid.
1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, and art so farre from mine health, and from the wordes of my roaring?
2 O my God, I crie by day, but thou hearest not, and by night, but haue no audience.
3 But thou art holy, and doest inhabite the prayses of Israel.
4 Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didest deliuer them.
5 They called vpon thee, and were deliuered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
6 But I am a worme, and not a man: a shame of men, and the contempt of the people.
7 All they that see me, haue me in derision: they make a mowe and nod the head, saying,
8 He trusted in the Lord, let him deliuer him: let him saue him, seeing he loueth him.
9 But thou didest draw me out of ye wombe: thou gauest me hope, euen at my mothers breasts.
10 I was cast vpon thee, euen from ye wombe: thou art my God from my mothers belly.
11 Be not farre from me, because trouble is neere: for there is none to helpe me.
12 Many yong bulles haue compassed me: mightie bulles of Bashan haue closed me about.
13 They gape vpon me with their mouthes, as a ramping and roaring lyon.
14 I am like water powred out, and all my bones are out of ioynt: mine heart is like waxe: it is molten in the middes of my bowels.
15 My strength is dryed vp like a potsheard, and my tongue cleaueth to my iawes, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
16 For dogges haue compassed me, and the assemblie of the wicked haue inclosed me: they perced mine hands and my feete.
17 I may tell all my bones: yet they beholde, and looke vpon me.
18 They part my garments among them, and cast lottes vpon my vesture.
19 But be thou not farre off, O Lord, my strength: hasten to helpe me.
20 Deliuer my soule from the sword: my desolate soule from the power of the dogge.
21 Saue me from the lyons mouth, and answere me in sauing me from the hornes of the vnicornes.
22 I wil declare thy Name vnto my brethren: in the middes of the Congregation will I praise thee, saying,
23 Prayse the Lord, ye that feare him: magnifie ye him, all the seede of Iaakob, and feare ye him, all the seede of Israel.
24 For he hath not despised nor abhorred ye affliction of the poore: neither hath he hid his face from him, but when he called vnto him, he heard.
25 My prayse shalbe of thee in the great Congregation: my vowes will I perfourme before them that feare him.
26 The poore shall eate and be satisfied: they that seeke after the Lord, shall prayse him: your heart shall liue for euer.
27 All the endes of the worlde shall remember themselues, and turne to the Lord: and all the kinreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
28 For the kingdome is the Lords, and he ruleth among the nations.
29 All they that be fat in the earth, shall eate and worship: all they that go downe into the dust, shall bowe before him, euen he that cannot quicken his owne soule.
30 Their seede shall serue him: it shalbe counted vnto the Lord for a generation.
31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousnesse vnto a people that shall be borne, because he hath done it.

Grace and peace to you this Lord’s Day.