O Lord, be with us when we sail

December 14

O Lord, be with us when we sail
Upon the lonely deep,
Our guard, when on the silent deck
The nightly watch we keep.

We need not fear, tho all around
‘Mid rising winds we hear
The multitude of waters surge;
For Thou, O God, art near.

The calm, the breeze, the gale, the storm,
The ocean and the land,
All, all are Thine, and held within
The hollow of Thy hand.

As when on blue Gennesaret
Rose high the angry wave,
And thy disciples quailed in dread,
One word of Thine could save;

So when the fiercer storms arise
From man’s unbridled will,
Be Thou, Lord, present in our hearts
To whisper, “Peace, be still.”
     E. A. Dayman