Christ My Song - 879
In the great and terrible wilderness - The cloven Rock
(Frances Bevan/Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
The cloven Rock.
(Isaiah 32,2)
1. In the great and terrible wilderness
I wandered in thirst and dread;
the burning sands were beneath my feet,
and the fierce glow overhead.
The fiery serpents and scorpions dire
dwelt in that lonely land,
and around and afar, as a glimmering sea,
the shadowless, trackless sand. (PDF - Midi)
2. Then came a day in my journey drear
when I sank on the weary road,
and there fell a shadow across the waste –
the shade of the wings of God.
The shadow solemn, and dark, and still,
lay cool on the purple sand;
the shadow deep of a mighty Rock
in a weary, thirsty land.
3. Of old from Heaven the thunder fell,
and that mighty Rock was riven,
and a river of water flowed down to me –
a stream of the rain of Heaven.
And the Hand that reft with thunder dread
the Rock of Ages hoar,
down to my lips the waters led,
and I thirsted nevermore.
4. For out of the great eternal deep
those glorious waters flowed;
they flowed from the fathomless depths of joy,
they flowed from the Heart of God.
From the depths of the tenderness all unknown,
that passeth knowledge, they flow;
I know it as ages of bliss roll on,
yet I never shall say, "I know."
5. And there, before the Rock that was riven,
at the feet of the Lord who died,
I drink of the depths of the love of Heaven,
the mighty, exhaustless tide.
"Drink, drink abundantly, O beloved!
I was smitten, accursed for thee."
O lips as lilies, O mouth most sweet,
that tell thy heart to me!
C. P. C.
Frances Bevan, Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso and others 1, 1899, 137-138.