The pity of the Lord,
To those that fear His name,
Is such as tender parents feel:
He knows our feeble frame.

He knows we are but dust,
Scattered with every breath:
His anger, like a rising wind,
Can send us swift to death.

Our days are as the grass,
Or like the morning flower:
If one sharp blast sweep o’er the field,
It withers in an hour.

But Thy compassions, Lord,
To endless years endure;
And children’s children ever find
Thy words of promise sure.

Isaac Watts

Copied from my grandmother’s hymnal, Hymn Book, Methodist Episcopal Church, South: Nashville, TN, 1901, Hymn #28.

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him, and His righteousness unto children’s children; To such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them.

Psalm 103:8-18

Note: The hymns in this hymnal are not titled. So when I do not know the hymn, I make up a title or simply use the first line.

Photo taken in Milton, FL, 2021

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