[Invocation] Ask for rain when the latter clouds gather, Ask the LORD who makes lightning and field. Idols speak emptiness, dreamers tell falsehood; Only his mercy commands what will yield. [Verse I] The household gods answer with vanity, Diviners offer a comforting lie. The people wander like sheep without shepherd, Troubled beneath an ungoverned sky. [Chorus] Ask ye of the LORD rain, Not the carved mouth, not the purchased refrain. He gives the showers, the grass in the field, He strengthens the flock and restores what was peeled. Ask ye of the LORD rain, Let the dry ground remember his name. [Verse II] From Judah the corner, the nail, and the battle bow, Leaders arise from a people made strong. They tread through conflict as riders are humbled, Because the LORD walks their road all along. [Gathering Movement] A signal is sounded; the scattered remember, From Egypt and Assyria families return. Sea-depth and river are crossed in the passage, The pride of old kingdoms is made to unlearn. [Bridge] Gilead receives them, Lebanon holds them, The land seems too narrow for mercy's increase. Sorrow is carried through waters and borders, Yet covenant strength becomes pathway and peace. [Final Chorus] Ask ye of the LORD rain, Not the false shepherd's profitable claim. He gathers the distant and gives them a place, He steadies their footsteps in covenant grace. Ask ye of the LORD rain, When the sky holds no visible sign. They walk in his name through the land of returning, Like vines made alive by the shower in time. [Coda] The clouds were not idols; The rain had a giver.