With years oppress’d, with sorrows worn — an adaptation in English verse of Psalms 71 by Sir Robert Grant

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Robert Grant

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4 April 2026 under the Creative Commons Zero (CC 0) Universal license a Public Domain dedication

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19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., English poetry, English Romanticism, Prayers as poems, Psalms 71

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	With years oppress’d, with sorrows worn, Dejected, harass’d, sick, forlorn, To thee, O God, I pray: To thee my wither’d hands arise, To thee I lift these failing eyes, Oh! cast me not away!
	Thy mercy heard my infant prayer, Thy love, with all a mother’s care, Sustain’d my childish days: Thy goodness watch’d my ripening youth, And form’d my heart to love thy truth, And fill’d my lips with praise.
	O Saviour! has thy grace declined? Can years affect th’ Eternal Mind? Or time its love decay?— A thousand ages pass thy sight, And all their long and weary flight Is gone like yesterday.
	Then, even in age and grief, thy name Shall still my languid heart inflame, And bow my faltering knee: Oh! yet this bosom feels the fire, This trembling hand and drooping lyre Have yet a strain for thee!
	Yes! broken, tuneless, still, O Lord, This voice transported shall record Thy goodness tried so long; Till, sinking slow, with calm decay, Its feeble murmurs melt away Into a seraph’s song!

This paraphrase of Psalms 71 in English verse by Sir Robert Grant was first published posthumously under the title “Psalm ⅬⅩⅩⅠ” by Robert’s brother Charles Grant (Lord Glenelg) in Sacred Poems by the Late Right Hon. Sir Robert Grant (1839), pp. 31-32.

Source(s)

Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Robert Grant

Sir Robert Grant, GCH (1779 – 9 July 1838), born in Bengal, was a British lawyer and politician who had a distinguished public career as Governor of Bombay and as a member of the British Parliament. Of Scottish ancestry, his father was a director of the East India Company. His family relocated to England in 1790 where he later studied law at Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 1807, he passed the bar after which he became a Commissioner in Bankruptcy. Between 1818 and 1832, he was an elected member of Parliament for several different Burghs. He advocated for the removal of the "Jewish disabilities" (legal restrictions, limitations and obligations placed on British Jewry). and twice carried bills on the subject through the House of Commons. They were, however, rejected in the Upper House, which did not yield on the question until 1858, twenty years after Grant's death.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)

With years oppress’d, with sorrows worn — an adaptation in English verse of Psalms 71 by Sir Robert Grant

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