1 Praise ye the Lord: my heart shall join
In work so pleasant, so divine;
Now, while the flesh is mine abode,
And when my soul ascends to God.

2 Praise shall employ my noblest pow'rs,
While immortality endures;
My days of praise shall ne'er be past,
While life, and thought and being last.

3 Why should I make a man my trust?
Princes must die and turn to dust;
Their breath departs, their pomp, and pow'r,
And thoughts, all vanish in an hour.

4 Happy the man whose hopes rely
On Isr'el's God: he made the sky,
And earth, and seas, with all their train;
And none shall find his promise vain.

5 His truth for ever stands secure:
He saves th' opprest, he feeds the poor,
He sends the lab'ring conscience peace,
And grants the pris'ner sweet release.

6 The Lord hath eyes to give the blind;
The Lord supports the sinking mind;
He helps the stranger in distress,
The widow and the fatherless.

7 He loves his saints, he knows them well,
But turns the wicked down to hell;
Thy God, O Zion ever reigns;
Praise him in everlasting strains.