The Psalms of Thanksgiving To YAHWEH
20
YAHWEH All THY Judgments Are Truth
When first the world began
Thou didst shed an HOLY SPIRIT
on all Thou didst bring into being,
and make them all to attest
Thy wondrous mysteries.
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Thou didst show Thy handiwork
in all that Thou didst make.
Thou didst reveal Thy glory
in all their varied shapes,
Thy truth in all their works.
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On all that keep Thy charge
Thou bestowest grace abounding
and mercies never failing;
but upon all things that defy Thee
Thou bringest perdition eternal.
So, if mortal men
keep faith with Thee,
behold, Thou crownest their heads
with glory everlasting
and compassest their works
with perennial joy;
but the wicked.
On those whom Thou hast honored
to show forth all Thy works
-on those, as on the host of Thy spirits,
the congregation of Thy Holy Beings,
the sky with all its array,
the earth with all its produce,
all things in lakes and seas
-on those, ere Thou didst create them,
Thou didst impose a task
and a perpetual charge.
For when first the world began
Thou didst so ordain them
and appoint the work of each
that they should tell forth Thy glory throughout Thy dominion,
showing unto them
what none would else have seen,
how ancient things pass over
and new things are ever created,
how the things established of old become like pacts annulled,
yet the future is ever assured;
while Thou YAHWEH everlasting,
and Thou wilt endure for all time.
In Thine inscrutable wisdom
Thou hast assigned to all these
natures diverse and varied
that Thy glory may be made known.
Yet, how can a spirit of flesh
understand all these things?
How can it conceive
Thy so great mystery?
How can the child of woman
fathom Thine awesome thoughts?
A fabric of dust is he,
a thing kneaded with water,
a mass of filth,
whose foundation is naked shame ,
and who is ruled by a spirit perverse.
Prone unto wrongdoing, **
he can serve but as a tiling of revulsion
world without end,
a portent for all generations,
an object of abhorrence to all flesh!
Nay, it is only through Thy goodness
and through Thy mercies abundant
that Man can ever do right.
For it is with Thine own beauty
that Thou dost beautify him,
and only of Thy free bounty
dost Thou shower him with delights
and grant him peace enduring
and length of days.
And, YAHWEH, when once Thou hast spoken,
ne'er is Thy word revoked.
So, for mine own part,
through the spirit Thou hast planted within me,
I, Thy servant, am come to know
that all Thy judgments are truth,
and righteousness all Thy works,
and ne'er is Thy word revoked.
None of the terms and times
which Thou hast foreordained
shall fail to come to pass
-all of them duly chosen
for their appointed ends.
Therefore I know full surely
that yet the time will come
when Thou wilt reward the righteous,
and the wicked be utterly doomed.
* Heb. 'If he do wrong'.
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