When Lift Up Your Hearts came out, I figured that there would be plenty of discussion online about what hymns appeared in the new hymnal and which ones didn’t. I couldn’t find that discussion so this blog is a start.

My previous list of notable songs from the 1987 Psalter Hymnal that were omitted from Lift Up Your Hearts focused on songs written between the mid-1960s and mid-1970s. Part 2 focuses on Psalms (including two more songs from the ’60s and ’70s).

“Clap Your Hands” (PH87 #166/SWM #2)

Clap your hands, all you people; shout unto God with a voice of triumph! Clap your hands, all you people; shout unto God with a voice of praise!

This catchy canon based on Psalm 47:1 was excised from Lift Up Your Hearts and doesn’t appear in Psalms for All Seasons either. It does appear in Sing with Me (our Sunday School songbook) with a second, Ascension-themed verse. It’s another casualty from the 1970s.

“I Will Sing of the Mercies of the Lord” (PH87 #169/PFAS #89A)

 I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, I will sing, I will sing.

Only one setting of Psalm 89 made it into Lift Up Your Hearts and it wasn’t “I Will Sing of the Mercies of the Lord,” which does appear in Psalms for All Seasons.

“This Is the Day” (PH87 #241/PFAS #118K)

This is the day, this is the day that the Lord has made, that the Lord has made.

I’m surprised this versification of Psalm 118:24, set to a lively Fijian folk medley and published in 1967, didn’t make it into Lift Up Your Hearts, but it does appear in Psalms for All Seasons. I have a sense that the catchy folk tunes of the 1960s and ’70s were swept aside by the catchy praise songs of the 1990s and 2000s.

“Out of the Depths I Cry, Lord” (PH87 #130)

There are some great settings of Psalm 130 in Psalms for All Seasons and this one didn’t make it in—despite being set to GENEVAN 130. Our Sunday School class will take up Psalm 130 in January and decide whether this versification deserved to get the boot.

“Give Thanks to God For Good Is He” (PH87 #182/PFAS #136E)

Eighty hymns appeared in the Psalter Hymnals of 1934, 1957 & 1987 (with the same tune in all three books). Sixty-nine of them appear in Lift Up Your Hearts. “Give Thanks to God For Good Is He” is one of the 11 that didn’t make the cut. The only Psalm 136 setting in Lift Up Your Hearts is “We Give Thanks unto You” (LUYH #52/PFAS #136C/SNC #26). “Give Thanks to God For Good Is He,” which has lyrics from the 1912 Psalter, does appear in Psalms for All Seasons.

“I Will Exalt My God and King” (PH87 #145/PH57 #299/PFAS #145B)

“I Will Exalt My God and King” is another Psalm setting with lyrics from the 1912 Psalter. The 1912 version appeared in the 1957 Psalter Hymnal as “O Lord, Thou Art My God and King” with the original eight verses and tune (DUKE STREET [“Jesus Shall Reign”]). The versification (now with seven verses)  was altered for the 1987 Psalter Hymnal and set to JERUSALEM. That’s the version that appears in Psalms for All Seasons. (This is another hymn that was brought to my attention by one of our accompanists, who notes that JERUSALEM was used in Chariots of Fire.)

Lift Up Your Hearts does include three settings of Psalm 145, including “I Will Extol You, O My God” (LUYH #561/PFAS #145E/PH87 #185/PH57 #298), which also has lyrics from the 1912 Psalter and is one of the 69 hymns to pass through the three Psalter Hymnals into LUYH.

Next up: Notable (non-Psalm) Bible songs omitted from Lift Up Your Hearts.