David

DO you wonder why such longing

Transport, pain and love impassioned

In the psalms are interwoven?

Listen how God’s bard was fashioned.

Murmurings of brooks and fountains,

Passion of tempestuous seas,

Solemn sounds of winds and forests,

The lorn nightingale’s love-pleas.

And the pæans of men who triumphed

Over grief and tempting glee—

All these divers notes God gathered

From the fount of melody.

And He fused them in one anthem,

Bade the music live, and lo!

David rose, he who to mankind

How to speak with God did show.

Therefore lives there such a yearning,

Such a rapture, exultation,

In the songs that David chanted

For the heart of every nation.