Psalm 119: Beth

B
    By what correcting line
May a young man make straight his crooked way
    By level of thy lore divine?
    Sith then with so good cause
My heart thee seeks, O Lord, I seeking pray
    Let me not wander from thy laws.

    Thy speeches have I hid
Close locked up in casket of my heart:
    Fearing to do what they forbid.
    But this cannot suffice
Thou wisest Lord, who ever blessed art,
    Yet make me in thy statutes wise.

    Then show my lips declare
The sacred laws that from thy mouth proceed:
    And teach all nations what they are;
    For what thou dost decree,
To my conceit, far more delight doth breed,
    Then worlds of wealth, if world might be.

    Thy precepts, therefore, I
Will my continual meditation make:
    And to thy paths will have good eye;
    The orders of thee set
Shall cause me in them greatest pleasure take,
    Nor once will I thy words forget.

-- Mary Sidney Herbert (1561-1621), Countess of Pembroke, English poet and patron, from The Poets' Book of Psalms


Verse form of the psalm (119:9-16) for the 5th Sunday in Lent, Year B.