How blest the man who fears the Lord
And greatly loves God’s holy will;
His children share his great reward,
And blessings all their days shall fill.

Abounding wealth shall bless his home,
His righteousness shall still endure,
To him shall light arise in gloom,
For he is merciful and pure.

The man whose hand the weak befriends
In judgment shall his cause maintain;
A peace unmoved his life attends,
And long his memory shall remain.

Of evil tidings not afraid,
His trust is in the Lord alone;
His heart is steadfast, undismayed,
For he shall see his foes o’erthrown.

With kind remembrance of the poor,
For their distress his gifts provide;
His righteousness shall thus endure,
His name in honor shall abide.

To shame the wicked shall be brought,
While righteous men shall favor gain;
Unrighteous hopes shall come to naught,
Its due reward shall sin obtain.

That man is blest who stands in awe
Of God, and loves His sacred law:
His seed on earth shall be renowned;
His house the seat of wealth shall be,
An inexhausted treasury,
And with successive honors crowned.

His lib’ral favors he extends,
To some he gives, to others lends;
A gen’rous pity fills his mind:
Yet what his charity impairs,
He saves by prudence in affairs
And thus he’s just to all mankind.

His hands, while they his alms bestow’d,
His glory’s future harvest sow’d;
The sweet remembrance of the just,
Like a green root, revives and bears
A train of blessings for his heirs,
When dying nature sleeps in dust.

Beset with threat’ning dangers round,
Unmov’d shall he maintain his ground;
His conscience holds his courage up:
The soul that’s fill’d with virtue’s light,
Shines brightest in affliction’s night,
And sees in darkness beams of hope.

Ill tidings never can surprise
His heart that fix’d on God relies,
Though waves and tempests roar around:
Safe on the rock he sits, and sees
The shipwreck of his enemies,
And all their hope and glory drown’d.

The wicked shall his triumph see,
And gnash their teeth in agony,
To find their expectations cross’d;
They and their envy, pride, and spite,
Sink down to everlasting night,
And all their names in darkness lost.