O Lord, My Lamp Is Going Out

Jesus said to his disciples: 

“Gird your loins and light your lamps

and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding,

ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.

Blessed are those servants

whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.

Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,

have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.

And should he come in the second or third watch

and find them prepared in this way,

blessed are those servants.”

Luke 12:35-38

O Lord, my lamp is going out
before the buffets of the wind
that wails aloud as thunder shouts
to snuff the guttered light within.

But still the bridegroom does not come
while midnight stretches on and on.
How long, with hands and hearts gone numb,
can we yet stand and wait for dawn?

The storm refuses to abate;
our lights are growing yet more dim,
but still we stand and still we wait
and fight to hold some hope of him.

No ear shall hear above the wind,
but we still lift our voice in song
that our deep darkness shall be hymned
though still it stretches on and on.

Come quickly, then, to tend the flames
when hearts and flasks have all run dry.
Revive the lips that sing your name
while yet the long night passes by.

O Master, do not wait for dawn,
but come—Come now; no more delay!
For in your light the night is gone,
and you, yourself, shall be our day!