THE FIRST PSALM.

Beatus vir.

1.

Oh the blessings of him who hath turned from the path,

Where wander bewildered the children of wrath:

Who stands not with scorners, nor sits in the seat,

Where triumph the godless, and atheists meet!

2.

The Lord is his pleasure, his song, and delight:

He dwells with Jehovah from morning to night:

His leaf shall not wither, his fruit never fall;

And look! what he doeth shall prosper withal!

3.

He shall stand like a tree in the garden of God,

His boughs high in heaven, his root in the sod,

All goodly and green as the olives that bend,

Where rills of the desert through oases wend.

4.

And this, while the godless up-torn by the root,

Shall blast in the blossom and blight in the fruit!

Oh dreadful their lot! Like the chaff they shall fly,

Or the sands of the waste when the whirlwind is high.