Robert Burns (1759–1796). Poems and Songs.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
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| 259. A New Psalm for the Chapel of Kilmarnock |
| | | | | On the Thanksgiving-Day for His Majesty’s Recovery. |
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| O SING a new song to the Lord, | |
| Make, all and every one, | |
| A joyful noise, even for the King | |
| His restoration. | |
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| The sons of Belial in the land | 5 |
| Did set their heads together; | |
| Come, let us sweep them off, said they, | |
| Like an o’erflowing river. | |
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| They set their heads together, I say, | |
| They set their heads together; | 10 |
| On right, on left, on every hand, | |
| We saw none to deliver. | |
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| Thou madest strong two chosen ones | |
| To quell the Wicked’s pride; | |
| That Young Man, great in Issachar, | 15 |
| The burden-bearing tribe. | |
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| And him, among the Princes chief | |
| In our Jerusalem, | |
| The judge that’s mighty in thy law, | |
| The man that fears thy name. | 20 |
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| Yet they, even they, with all their strength, | |
| Began to faint and fail: | |
| Even as two howling, ravenous wolves | |
| To dogs do turn their tail. | |
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| Th’ ungodly o’er the just prevail’d, | 25 |
| For so thou hadst appointed; | |
| That thou might’st greater glory give | |
| Unto thine own anointed. | |
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| And now thou hast restored our State, | |
| Pity our Kirk also; | 30 |
| For she by tribulations | |
| Is now brought very low. | |
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| Consume that high-place, Patronage, | |
| From off thy holy hill; | |
| And in thy fury burn the book— | 35 |
| Even of that man M’Gill. 1 | |
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| Now hear our prayer, accept our song, | |
| And fight thy chosen’s battle: | |
| We seek but little, Lord, from thee, | |
| Thou kens we get as little. | 40 |
| | | Note 1. Dr. William M’Gill of Ayr, whose “Practical Essay on the Death of Jesus Christ” led to a charge of heresy against him. Burns took up his cause in “The Kirk of Scotland’s Alarm” (p. 351).—Lang. [back] |
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