Shout for joy to God, all the earth!
Sing the glory of his name;
make his praise glorious. (v. 1)
Psalm 66 is an extended call to worship filled with reminders of “what God has done.” This includes the Exodus (vv. 6), but also God’s testing of his people (vv. 10-12).
Your let peoples ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance. (v. 12)
In response, the psalmist promise to offer sacrifices in the temple (vv. 13-15). The final section of the psalm (vv. 16-20) has a final call to worship and expresses thanks that God has heard the Psalmist’s prayer.
The Revised Common Lectionary assigns Psalm 66 to the 6th Sunday of Easter in Year A, where it serves as a response to Paul’s address on the Areopagus (Acts 17:22-31). It is also assigned to two Sundays in Year C. We took up Psalm 66 in our class on April 13.
Psalms for All Seasons includes four Psalm 66 hymns, two of which are also in Lift Up Your Hearts.
“Come, All You People, Praise Our God” (PFAS #66C/PFAS 495/PH87 #242/PH57 #120) is from the 1912 Psalter and is one of 18 Psalm settings to appear in all three Psalter Hymnals and Lift Up Your Hearts with the same tune (ADOWA) The tune was composed by Iowa native Charles Gabriel , the prolific gospel songwriter who composed “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” (LUYH #441) among thousands of other songs.
The gray Psalter Hymnal dropped the fourth verse so although the Psalter Hymnal Handbook claims the song versifies vv. 8-20, the hymn now actually ends with v. 18.
Come, all you people, praise our God
and tell his glorious works abroad,
who holds our souls in life;
he never lets our feet be moved
and, though our faith he often proved,
upholds us in the strife.
“Come All You People” (PFAS #66B/LUYH #496/SNC #4) is a Zimbabwean tune that appeared in Sing! A New Creation (with no explicit connection to Psalm 66) and then was included in PFAS and LUYH as a Psalm 66 hymn as it appears to be based on verse 8. The 1995 Lutheran hymnal With One Voice added two verses to make it a Trinitarian hymn. The second and third verses substitute “Savior” and “Spirit” for “Maker.”
Come, all you people, come and praise your Maker;
Come, all you people, come and praise your Maker;
Come, all you people, come and praise your Maker;
Come now and worship the Lord.
“Praise Our God with Shouts of Joy” (PFAS #66E) has modern lyrics by Christopher Idle set to GENEVAN 136.
Praise our God with shouts of joy;
sing the glory of his name;
join to lift his praises high;
through the world his love proclaim!
“Cry Out to God in Joy” (PFAS #66A) is a modern choral piece by Steven Warner. It might work best to have a soloist or choir sing the stanzas and the congregation sing the refrain. A sample is here. The chorus is also used as the responsorial setting in Psalms for All Seasons, “Cry Out to God in Joy” (PFAS #66D). It’s more singable than many of the responsorial choruses.
Sing! A New Creation includes another responsorial, “Cantad al Señor/O Sing to the Lord” (SNC #224/225), which uses uses the five stanzas of the hymn as responses to five sections of the psalm.
The Psalter Hymnals include three Psalm 66 hymns that don’t appear in the new CRC hymnals. “Come, Everyone, and Join with Us” (PH87 #66) is a versification of the entire psalm written for the gray Psalter Hymnal by Marie Post (lyrics) and Dale Grotenhuis (tune). The tune is ELEANOR.
The two additional Psalm 66 settings in the blue Psalter Hymnal are from the 1912 Psalter. “All Lands, to God in Joyful Sounds” (PH57 #118) is a versification of vv. 1-6, each verse getting its own stanza. “O All Ye Peoples, Bless Our God” (PH57 #119) is a versification of vv. 8-20.
(This is the 24th 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, Psalm 29, Psalm 40, Psalm 23, Psalm 27, Psalm 130, Psalm 15, Psalm 51, Psalm 6, Psalm 32, Psalm 143, Psalms 38/102, Psalm 31, Psalm 116, Psalm 16, Psalm 22, Psalm 118, and Psalms 47/93.)