As pants the hart for cooling springs

Authored by James Merrick, this metrical rendering of Psalm 42 was first published in his volume The Psalms, Translated or Paraphrased in English Verse in 1765. Merrick's original paraphrase is extensive, comprising sixteen stanzas of four lines each. Because of its length, compilers of congregational songbooks rarely published the full text intact. Instead, various shorter compilations and stanza selections were extracted for public worship. Notable among these adapted forms were the selections featured in William Bengo Collyer's Selection of Hymns in 1812 and the Islington Collection in 1830. Through these edited selections, Merrick's version reached congregations across Britain, offering an elegant paraphrase of the biblical psalmist's thirst for the divine presence.