(Here’s the ninth post in my continuing series on the Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class I co-teach with Andrew Friend. Each week we sing psalm settings from Psalms for All Seasons, Lift Up Your Hearts, and other CRC hymnals. Previous posts is the series focused on Psalm 121, Psalm 122, Psalms 2/99, Psalm 72, Psalm 95, Psalm 147, Psalm 112 and Psalm 29.)
The Revised Common Lectionary assigns the first half of Psalm 40 (vv. 1-11) to the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany. Our Sunday School class took it up on Oct. 27.
The first part of the Psalm (vv. 1-11) is a prayer of thankfulness for salvation that uses vivid language to describe the psalmist’s plight.
I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear,and put their trust in the Lord. (vv. 1-3)
The psalmist shares “the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation” (v. 9) and “has not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness” (v. 10).
The second part of psalm (vv. 11-17), which isn’t in the lectionary selection, is a lament and prayer for help about a current trouble: “evils have encompassed me without number; my iniquities have overtaken me, until I cannot see” (p. 12).
Psalms for All Seasons includes only two hymns based on Psalm 40. The class’s favorite was “I Waited Patiently for God” (PFAS #40B/LUYH #670), which is also the only complete Psalm 40 setting in Lift Up Your Hearts. The four stanzas are based on verses 1, 2, 3 and 5.
I waited patiently for God,
for God to hear my prayer;
and God bent down to where I sank
and listened to me there.
The lyrics are credited to the Iona Community; the tune is NEW BRITAIN (AKA “Amazing Grace”). Some members of the class felt that NEW BRITAIN is so closely associated with “Amazing Grace” that another tune would work better. Andrew played through a number of 8.6.8.6 tunes (there are 25 in LUYH) and we chose NAOMI as our favorite alternative tune for “I Waited Patiently for God.”
The other hymn in PFAS is Greg Scheer’s “I Will Wait upon the Lord” (PFAS #40C). Here is Scheer’s recording of “I Will Wait upon the Lord.” The chorus is based on vv. 1-2:
I will wait upon the Lord For He will hear my cry.
He has pulled me from the grave and set me by His side.
He has set my feet upon the solid ground of the Cornerstone.
Scheer wrote the song for Cornerstone University Ministry at the University of Pittsburgh. According to Scheer, “I chose Psalm 40 because I felt that the image of the feet being placed on solid rock could be appropriately updated to refer to the Solid Rock, Jesus Christ, the Cornerstone of our faith.”
Most of the language in the four short stanzas is drawn from the thanksgiving part of the psalm, but the final stanza suggests the troubles of the lament part (“Lord, you’ve always been my help and my strength, and I will trust in you to hear me against, hear me again”).
PFAS also includes a responsorial setting “Here I Am” (PFAS #40A/LUYH #740) based on verse 8, which appears in Lift Up Your Hearts as a short standalone chorus. (Full lyrics: “Here I am Lord, here I am. I come to do your will.”) Another responsorial setting, “Wait for the Lord, whose Day is Near” (SNC #96), appears in Sing! A New Creation.
None of the Psalm 40 settings from the Psalter Hymnals made the cut into PFAS or LUYH. The only setting in the gray Psalter Hymnal is “I Waited Patiently for God” (PH87 #40), versified by Bert Pohlman and set to MERTHYR TYDFIL, which is a darker, more solemn tune than those in the newer hymnals. It covers the entire psalm.
The blue Psalter Hymnal has three settings for Psalm 40, all from the 1912 Psalter. “Thy Tender Mercies, O My Lord” (PH57 #70) covers only the lament section of the psalm (vv. 11-17). It was my favorite of the settings that didn’t make Psalms for All Seasons.
Thy tender mercies, O my Lord, Withhold not, I implore;
But let Thy kindness and Thy truth Preserve me evermore.
For countless ills have compassed me, My sinful deeds arise;
Yea, they have overtaken me; I dare not raise my eyes.
“I Waited for the Lord Most High” (PH57 #71) is a versification of just the thanksgiving section of the psalm. “Before Thy People I Confess” (PH57 #72) starts with v. 10, covers some of the lament section, and then finishes with v. 3.