Previous items in this series of posts about notable hymns from the gray Psalter Hymnalthat were omitted from Lift Up Your Hearts focused on songs from the 1960s & ’70s, Psalm settings and Bible songs. Today’s theme is Christmas/Advent songs.
“Christians Awake” (PH87 #350/PH57 #346)
Christians Awake, salute the happy morn on which the Savior of the world was born.
Only six Christmas songs in the Psalter Hymnal got left out of Lift Up Your Hearts. This spirited 18th Century carol is one of two that I miss.
“Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” (PH87 #353)
Swiftly winging, angels singing, bells are ringing, tidings bringing: Christ the child is Lord of all! Christ the child is Lord of all!
All the internal rhymes—highlighted by the winging/singing/ringing/bringing—make “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” a Christmas earworm.
“Little Bethlehem of Judah” (PH87 #204)
I wonder how many hymns that were created for the gray Psalter Hymnal, like “Christ, You Are the Fullness” (PH87 #229/SNT #201), didn’t make it into LUYH. “Little Bethlehem of Judah,” a versification of Micah 5:2-4 by Calvin Seerveld, is another example. Set in the Bible Song section of the Psalter Hymnal, this song was part of our repertoire at Trinity.
“O Lord, How Shall I Meet You” (PH87 #331)
The Psalter Hymnal has only 10 Advent songs and seven appear in Lift Up Your Hearts. This 17th Century hymn is one of the three that didn’t—and another that we sang at Trinity.
“The Prophets Came to Israel” (PH87 #334)
Here’s another CRC hymn that didn’t make the cut. Bert Witvoet wrote “The Prophets Came to Israel” for Advent candle lighting with the verses corresponding to candles for the prophets, Bethlehem, shepherds, angels and Christ. If we’re not going to preserve our own hymns in our own hymnal, we shouldn’t expect them to survive.
(Incidentally, the third lost Advent hymn is the strangely titled “O Christ! Come Back to Save Your Folk” (PH87 #330)—rhymes with “with one clean stroke”— another CRC original by Calvin Seerveld.)
Next up: Rousing hymns from the mid-19th Century.