Matthew Parker's English translation of Psalm 104, published 1650.

psalm-104-parker.txt

Psalm 104
Translated by
Matthew Parker (1504-1575), Archbishop of Canterbury

The Argument.  Psalme.  CIIII.
This Psalme setth out: for prouidence,
Almighty Gods: magnificence:
His wisdome, power: his goodnes eke,
Of night, of day: of yere, of weeke,
	His excellence: all thyng doth kepe.


O Prayse my soule: the Lord of name,
O Lord my God: of worthy fame:
Thou doost excell in dignitie,
Wyth honour clothd and maiestie.

For he is clad: most cleare wyth light,
As he were deckt: wyth vesture bryght:
He spreadth the heauens: as vayle most fyne,
Where lyeth hys grace: and power deuyne.

The upper heauens: be so arayde,
Wyth waters lyke: as beames be layde:
The cloudes he makth: hys charet swift,
On wynde the wynges: hys walke he lifth,

And he doth make: hys aungels sprites
In wyndes and blastes: to worke theyr mightes:
The flamyng fier: is minister,
Whose worde to do: they waite full nere.

He setteth the earth: on bases sound
The seas they be: O wondrous ground:
The world to ende: it shall not reale,
It can no change: ne ruine feele.

Wyth waters depe: this earth was shet, *??
As it wyth coate: all darke beset
For once the seas: as mountaynes stoode,
Most hye aboue: as raging floud,

Though thus theyr waues: the waters spred
At thy rebuke: they swiftly fled:
At thy rough voyce: in thunder hard,
They fast gaue up: their hold and warde.

The hils then hye: in sight dyd mount
The fieldes fell low: as now they wont:
As them thou stowdst: in most due place,
They stand euen so: they moue no space.

To all thynges made: thou gauest hys roume
Theyr proper place: not out to come:
Thou doost the seas: in boundes repose,
Not backe to turne: the earth to close.

He springes sendth out: to floudes to grow
And they in sea: discharge we know:
Betwene the hyls: they kepe their flote,
To fresh the earth: with new greene coate.

All beastes of field: there drynke theyr fill:
They seeke them needes: though fed on hill:
The asses wilde: they slake their thirst
Most dry which be: so made at first.

Their featherd foules: seeke harborow
As nye their drinke: they sit on bough:
Where byrdes do chirme: the trees among,
To God theyr Lord: in cherefull song.

He wetith the hyls: and makth them soft,
From heauenly cels: by dewes aloft:
By frutefull cloudes: which wrought his hand
The showers fall down: to moyst the land.

He makth for beast: the grasse to spring,
And herbage else: for man to bryng:
To serue hys neede: his bread to get,
In earth such use: in beast he set.

Whence wyne is geuen: mans hart to cheare,
And oyle his face: so bryght to cleare:
And bread fro thence: he doth addres,
Mans hart to strength: in stablenes.

The Lordes own trees: by man untyld,
Wyth Sap by showers: be fully fild:
As Ceders hye: of Libanus,
Which he hath plant: right plentuous.

In these hye trees: the birdes do nest,
God geueth them wit: to seeke theyr rest:
The Storkes there build: and houses haue,
In treese of fyrre: themselfe to saue.

The mountayns hye: a refuge bee,
For buckes and beastes: of Uenerie: *??
And so the rockes: all inaccesse,
To Conies bee: theyr fikernesse.

The moone he made: for ceasons due,
The nyght to cleare: wyth chaunges new:
The sunne so hye: a creature,
Hys down fall knowth: and keepth it sure.

And after day: thou bringst in darke,
So nyght comth on: and blyndnes starke:
The Sauage beasts: yet gayne therby,
So creepe they forth: to feede full stye. *??

The Lyons whelpes: most fierce they rore,
In rangyng long: of pray the store:
They seeke by darke: their sustenance,
Prepard by Gods: good ordinance.

When sunne returnth: and shewth hys rise,
Expellyng darke: hys light surpristh:
These basetes by heapes: then soone remoue
They kepe theyr dens: for lyght aboue.

Thus man goth forth: hys worke to do,
More bold that they: be thus ago:
To tillage true: he maketh hys gate,
And spendth hys day: till it be late.

O mighty Lord: my fort and holde,
How be thy workes: tride manifold:
Thou madest them all: in wisdome hye,
Of thy great goods: full therth do lygh.

The sea so houghe: the Ocean,
So large in armes: and space for man:
Theare liuing things: saunce number creepe
Great beasts and small: therein do keepe.

Their ships by sayles: the bilowes passe
Where men transport theyr wardly trade:
There playth his vages: Leuiathan,
Whom thou dydst forme: to sport therean.

All creatures: of thee expect,
Their foode most apt: for euery sect:
That thou shouldst geue: theyr nourishment,
In tyme of neede: most competent.

When deale thou doost: they gather strayt,
In hungers stresse: themselues to bayt:
If thou splayst hand: wyth blessyng meete,
With good, ful good: they be replete.

When face thou hidest: and nought doost send,
O then they wayle: to death they bend:
If breath thou stopst: decay they must,
They must returne: into theyr dust.

When thou returnst: thy sprite agayne,
New thynges by thee: new breath optayne:
Then yerely thus: thou dekst a fresh,
The face of earth: wyth new increase.

Gods maiestie: be it for aye,
In glory blest: in all hys way:
The Lord shall hye: reioyce in thought,
In all hys workes: so godly wrought.

This God when he: mans sinnes to fynde,
But lookth on earth: it quakth and twynd:
When he the hyls: wyth hand but touch,
They smoke for feare: and low they couche.

For I will sing: to thys my Lord,
Whyle I am here: and hym record:
In Psaltries sweete: I wyll my song,
To my Lord God: in lyfe prolong.

My talke of hym: most pleasant is,
No day I will: be found remisse,
To ioy in God: I will not cease,
He is my health, my rest, myne ease.

Where sinfull men: from earth shall fayle,
All wycked freakes: God let them qualye:
But thou my soule: thy Lord aduaunce,
Prayse all the Lord: hys heritaunce.

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Notes -
Transcribed to the best of my ability from a scan.
https://ia601700.us.archive.org/28/items/whortran00park/whortran00park.pdf

There is something going on in English at this point with the letters U and V.  Many places we would use V, U is written here.  I've done my best to keep the flavor of the original spelling.  Some of the double "o"s were written more like a lower-case omega.  I was not able to decipher some other letters - places of particular confusion are marked *??.

The translator added a couplet to the end of each quatrain, which I have omitted.  For example,

He makth for beast: the grasse to spring,
And herbage else: for man to bryng:
To serue hys neede: his bread to get,
In earth such use: in beast he set.
	O serue this king:
	His actes intreat.

Whence wyne is geuen: mans hart to cheare,
And oyle his face: so bryght to cleare:
And bread fro thence: he doth addres,
Mans hart to strength: in stablenes.
	O count him deare:
	Hys laudes expresse.

I find them cute, and nice rhymes recalling both parts of the quatrain, but they're not the psalm!  So they are gone.

-Thomas Grenfell Smith, February 7 2014