O God of My Salvation
1 O God of my salvation,
At night I turn to pray;
Incline your ear and listen,
Bring solace with the day.
Troubled my heart and soul,
No one there is can help me,
Can draw me out and save me;
For your waves o’er me roll.
2 I cry to you in wonder,
“Why do you cast me off?”
All shun me, and I ponder
How you can let them scoff.
I’m shut away inside,
Where none the door can open,
My life is bent and broken,
Alone, yet cannot hide.
3 My eye grows dim with sorrow;
I spread my hands to you.
Can I survive the morrow,
Or have you shunned me, too?
Who then will praise your name,
When all my voice is stillness,
My eyelids closed in darkness,
Whose song will spread your fame?
4 Where now the hope of
Your promised royal son,
To open prisons cruel,
Proclaim the vict’ry won?
Where then our strength and rock,
To stand with us forever,
To speak your love and never
Forsake us when we knock?
5 Can this be he, this Jesus,
Who’s met with shame and scorn?
How can this one release us,
Whose pain and death we mourn?
Yet this one knows my fall,
My heart and my dark prison;
With this one I am risen
To sing your praise to all.
Text: Frederick J. Gaiser, © 2007
Tune: Von Gott will ich nicht lassen (Lutheran Book of Worship 468)
The hymn text is based on Psalms 88 and 89, assuming them to be a deliberate psalm pair (they are the only two “Ezrahite” psalms in the Psalter). Psalm 88 is perhaps the darkest of the laments, lacking the familiar turn to praise. But then, in response, Psalm 89 sings the promise of victory at the hand of God’s powerful Davidic ruler. However, Psalm 89, too, turns finally to lamentation, seeing the unexpected rejection of God’s anointed servant.