Introduction
This translation of the Book of Psalms into metrical and rhyming verse, published in 1696, was the result of a collaboration between Nahum Tate, Poet Laureate and author of Christmas carol While Shepherds Watched, and clergyman Nicholas Brady. Verse numbers indicate which verse of the Psalm is currently being translated.
8.6.8.6
How blest is he who ne’er consents
By ill advice to walk;
Nor stands in sinners’ ways, nor sits
Where men profanely talk.
2
But makes the perfect law of God
His business and delight;
Devoutly reads therein by day,
And meditates by night.
3
Like some fair tree, which, fed by streams,
With timely fruit does bend,
He still shall flourish, and success
All his designs attend.
4
Ungodly men and their attempts
No lasting root shall find;
Untimely blasted, and dispers’d
Like chaff before the wind.
5
Their guilt shall strike the wicked dumb
Before their Judge’s face;
No formal hypocrite shall then
Amongst the saints have place.
6
For God approves the just man’s ways,
To happiness they tend;
But sinners, and the paths they tread,
Shall both in ruin end.
See also the translation of this Psalm in The Authorized Version and the translation by Myles Coverdale.
The following well-known hymns share the metre of this Psalm. Any hymn tune suitable for them could be used for this Psalm too.
1. Be thou my guardian and my guide
2. City of God, how broad and far
3. Come, let us join our cheerful songs
4. O for a closer walk with God
5. O God our help in ages past
6. The people that in darkness sat
7. While shepherds watched their flocks by night
8. Ye choirs of new Jerusalem