Except the Lord do build the house, The builders lose their pain

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Except the Lord do build the house, The builders lose their pain

Author: T. R. Birks
Tune: SALISBURY (Ravenscroft's Psalmes)
Published in 6 hymnals

Representative Text

1 Except the Lord do build the house,
the builders lose their pain:
Except the Lord the city keep,
the watchmen watch in vain.
2 'Tis vain for you to rise betimes,
or late from rest to keep,
To feed on sorrows' bread; so gives
he his belovèd sleep.

3 Lo, children are God's heritage,
the womb's fruit his reward.
4 The sons of youth as arrows are,
for strong men's hands prepared.
5 O happy is the man that hath
his quiver filled with those;
They unashamèd in the gate
shall speak unto their foes.

Source: Foundations Psalter: 1650 Scottish Psalter #127

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Author: T. R. Birks

Birks, Thomas Rawson, M.A., b. Sept. 1810, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (B.A. 1834, M.A. 1837), of which he subsequently became a Fellow. Having taken Holy Orders in 1837, he became Rector of Kelshall, Herts, 1844; Vicar of Holy Trinity, Cambridge, 1866; Hon. Canon of Ely Cathedral, 1871; and Professor of Moral Philosophy, Cambridge, 1872. He d. at Cambridge, July 21, 1883. His works, to the number of 25, include Biblical, Astronomical, Scientific, Prophetic, and other subjects. He also wrote the Memoirs of the Rev. E Bickersteth (his father-in-law), 2 vols., 1851. His hymns appeared in Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody; 1833; and, together with Versions of the Psalms, in his Companion Psalter, 1874. They number upwards of 100… Go to person page >

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