(Here’s the 12th 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, and Psalm 27. Today (Jan. 26) we looked at Psalm 130.

Since Psalm 130 is one of my favorites, I have enough material for three posts. In this one, I’m going to do my regular work of going through all the Psalm 130 settings we sang in Sunday School today. In a second post, I’ll share my series of  Psalm 130 lenten litanies. In a third post, I’m going to discuss using Christian prayers to illuminate psalms using Psalm 130 as an example.)

My favorite section of the Psalms are the songs of ascents (Psalms 120-134), a collection of short pilgrimage songs that touch on the major themes and moods of the entire Psalter.  Psalm 130, a highlight of this collection, is an succinct but eloquent expression of despair and trust.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;
O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.

Some of the psalms have vivid images of tribulation (e.g., from David’s military misfortunes) that are hard for me to connect to my own. “Out of the depths” leaves to the listener’s imagination the deep trouble from which the psalmist is calling: Drowning in deep water? Lying broken at the bottom of a chasm? At the bottom of the social hierarchy? In the “depths of sin and sadness”?  Perhaps calling out from the depths of grief and anguish? (Eugene Peterson’ paraphrase puts “the depths” in modern idiom as “Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life!”)

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
therefore you are feared.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

If God was unforgiving, keeping a permanent record of all our sins, the psalmist suggests, we would have no hope because our sins are too many. But we can put our trust in the Lord and put our hope in his word because he forgives us. We can trust even though we have to wait—and wait—because the Lord’s mercy is as sure as the sun rising each morning.

Psalms for All Seasons’ responsorial setting text (from the Evangelical Lutheran Worship) translates the beginning of verse 3 as “If you were to keep watch over sins,” which (a member of the class pointed out) highlights the fact that the psalmist wants to get the Lord’s attention—but not too close attention.

O Israel, put your hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

In the final verses, the psalmist moves from his own experience in the depths and his trust in the Lord to the whole people of God, who are in the depths of their sins and need put their trust in God to redeem them.

Psalm 130 is one of the seven penitential psalms, probably because of the clear connections than can be made from the psalm to Christian soteriology. It is the first penitential psalm our class has taken up, but we’re planning on looking at the other six (6, 32, 38, 51, 102, and 143) over the next few weeks.

The penitential psalms are traditionally Lenten psalms, and the Revised Common Lectionary includes Psalms 32 (Years A  & C), 51 (A, B & C),  and 130 (A) during Lent. Psalm 143 is the Easter Vigil psalm all three years. However, Psalms 6, 38 and 102 aren’t in the lectionary at all, which seems like an odd choice. (The Presbyterian Book of Common Worship’s daily lectionary does assign one penitential psalm a day though Lent, except that 91 has replaced 38). Incidentally, all the songs of ascents are in the lectionary except for Psalm 120, 129 and 134.

Psalms for All Seasons includes six hymns based on Psalm 130 plus the responsorial setting “Out of the Depths I Cry to You” (PFAS #130B).

“Out of the Depths I Cry to You on High” (PFAS #130C/LUYH #655/PH87 #256/PH57 #273) is one of 69 hymns to appear with the same tune (SANDON)  in all three Psalter Hymnals and Lift Up Your Hearts. The hymn first appeared in the 1912 Psalter as “From Out the Depths I Cry.” The lyrics were altered for the gray Psalter Hymnal.

Out of the depths I cry to you on high;
Lord, hear my call.
Bend down your ear and listen to me sigh,
forgiving all.
If you should mark our sins, who then could stand?
But grace and mercy dwell at your right hand.

 “Out of the Depths I Cry to You” (PFAS #130A/HFW #10) is the only hymn in PFAS with words and music by Martin Luther. The first and fourth stanzas are derived from the psalm while the second and third develop its themes in Christian language. Here is verse three:

In you alone, O God, we hope,
and not in our own merit.
We rest our fears in your good Word,
and trust your Holy Spirit.
Your promise keeps us strong and sure;
we trust the cross, your signature
inscribed upon our temples.

For those who don’t like Luther’s tune (AUS TIEFER NOT)—like some members of our class—we chose WAS GOTT TUT as an alternate.

“In Deep Despair I Cry to You” (PFAS #130E/SNC #62) has modern lyrics set to MORNING SONG (AKA CONSOLATION/KENTUCKY HARMONY). The tune is the most used in Lift Up Your Hearts (five hymns), often for hymns of anguish [e.g., “Why Stand So Far Away, My God?” (LUYH #648)] and waiting [e.g., “The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns” (LUYH #476/PH87 #615), “Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days” (LUYH #132)].

In deep despair I cry to you—
Lord, hear my voice, my prayer.
If you should mark iniquities,
who would stand guiltless there?
But, Lord, with you forgiveness dwells
and love beyond compare.

“From the Depths of Sin and Sadness” (PFAS #130F) is a modern versification set to a Russian folk melody.

From the depths of sin and sadness,
I have called unto the Lord.
Be not deaf to my poor pleading,
in your mercy, hear my voice.

The final two settings in Psalms for All Seasons are modern hymns with beautiful piano accompaniments.  “Out of the Depths I Cry to You” (PFAS #130D) uses a pair a syncopated melodies (for stanzas 1, 2, 4 & 5 and stanzas 3 & 6). A sample is here.

Out of the depths I cry to you.
O Lord please hear my call.
O Lord be merciful to me;
at your throne of grace I fall;
at your throne of grace I fall.

“For You, My God, I Wait” (PFAS #130G) is a hymn with lyrics by Mennonite pastor Adam Tice. The melody by David Ward is my favorite Psalm 130 tune. A sample is here. [Tice also wrote the Psalm 122 setting “Rejoice, Rejoice, Come Sing with Me” (PFAS #122A)]. “For You, My God, I Wait” is a loose paraphrase of the Psalm 130 (and Psalm 131 in stanza 5). Each of the first four stanzas refers to the “sleepless ones” who are waiting.

For you, my God, I wait
with hope born of the Word.
Like sleepless ones who long to dream
I wait and call my Lord.

The ending (stanza 6) circles back to “the depths”:

O God, you are my hope;
I know that you forgive.
Your love redeems me from the depths
so I may rise and live.

PFAS also includes “A Prayer of Hope” (PFAS #130H) based on the psalm which we’ve used as a Lenten confession.

The gray Psalter Hymnal also includes a Psalm 130 versification (in two stanzas), “Out of the Depths I Cry, Lord” (PH87 #130) set to GENEVAN 130. This is one of a number of Psalm hymns in the gray Psalter Hymnal that combined modern lyrics (many apparently written explicitly for the hymnal) and tunes from the  appropriate psalms in the 16th Century Genevan Psalter; many weren’t carried forward into Lift Up Your Hearts. (The gray Psalter Hymnal has 38 Genevan tunes; LUYH has 15. PFAS has just 19.)

We didn’t sing the three additional hymns from the blue Psalter Hymnal, but our class member who grew up with the hymnal played them for us and talked about how they were used in her church. She said the most commonly used were “From out the Depths I Cry” (discussed above) and “From the Depths Do I Invoke Thee” (PH57 #274), which has lyrics from the 1912 Psalter and a lovely tune (EVENING PRAYER) more cheerful than any we sang in class. Her church never used “From the Depths of Sadness” (PH57 #272), which is in a minor key. The final setting in the blue Psalter Hymnal is “From the Depths My Prayer Ascendeth” (PH57 #275).

(Here’s the 11th 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, and Psalm 23.)

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

Psalm 27 alternates between a description of the psalmist’s dire situation—“evildoers assail me to devour my flesh,” “my father and mother forsake me,” “false witnesses have risen against me and they are breathing out violence”—and heartfelt declarations of trust in and devotion to God.

One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after:
to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.

Some commentators divide the psalm into a psalm of confidence (vv. 1-6) and an individual lament (vv. 7-14). Most of the settings in our hymnals focus on the first part of the psalm, particularly on the three images of God in the first verse—light, salvation and stronghold—while the second part is neglected.

The Revised Standard Lectionary assigns the entire Psalm 27 to the 2nd Sunday after Lent in Year C and vv. 1 & 4-9 to the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany in Year A. We took the psalm up during our Nov. 3 class.

“O LORD, You Are My Light” (PFAS #27C/LUYH #773/PH87 #164/PH57 #48) is a versification of the first six verses (minus two). The version in the 1912 Psalter and the blue Psalter Hymnal (“Jehovah Is My Light”) has six stanzas that cover verses 1-6. The gray Psalter Hymnal dropped the second stanza (verses 2-3) and modernized the other. This version, which is found in PFAS and LUYH, now covers vv. 1, 4-6. PFAS & LUYH set the lyrics to RHOSYMEDRE.

O LORD, you are my light
and my salvation near;
then who will cause me fright
or fill my heart with fear?
While God my strength, my life sustains,
secure from fear my soul remains.

The detailed PFAS performance note to “O LORD, You Are My Light”: “Since its appearance in the Psalter, 1912, to the tune of ARTHUR’S SEAT, this versification has often been sung in a confident, even triumphalistic tone of voice. The coupling with the tune RHOSYMEDRE allows for a more nuanced rendering of the different emotions of the text. St. 1 can be sung with a sense of quiet trust. Sing st. 2 in harmony with a sense of earnestness. St. 3 might begin with a sense of anxiety, accompanying the opening phrases with D-minor and G-minor chords. This stanza grows in confidence and intensity, leading to a joyful, harmonious, and resounding singing of the final stanza.”

 “God Is My Strong Salvation” (PFAS #27D) is another traditional hymn based on the first part of the psalm and set to CHRISTUS, DER IST MEIN LEBEN.

The Palm 27 settings also include four hymns titled “The Lord is My Light”: “The Lord Is My Light” (PFAS #27A) is a Taizé song consisting of two short themes based on v. 1; “The Lord Is My Light” (PFAS #27B/LUYH #431) is a gospel song based on vv. 1, 5 & 14; “The Lord Is My Light” (PFAS #27J/SNC #192) is an Iona Community hymn based on vv. 1-6 and set to CZECHOSLOVAKIA; and “El Señor es mi luz/The Lord Is My Light” (PFAS #27G/LUYH #774), a Spanish-language hymn based on vv. 1, 4, 9-11 & 13.

“One Thing I Ask” (PFAS #27I), based on vv. 4, 7 & 9, is the only setting in PFAS that doesn’t begin with verse 1 and doesn’t mention “light” or “salvation.”

One thing I ask, one thing I seek,
that I may dwell  in your house, O Lord,
all of my days, all of my life that I may see you.

The responsorial setting we used was “The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation” (PFAS #27H/LUYH #885/SNC #206), which we were familiar with from Sing! A New Creation. Psalms for All Seasons includes three other responsorial settings: “The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation” (PFAS #27H-Alternate), from the Orthodox tradition; “The Lord Is My Light and My Stronghold” (PFAS #27F), a jazz tune; and “My God Is My Light and My Salvation” (PFAS #27E, which is labeled “An Accompaniment for Reading” and includes a “vocal vamp” (“Who shall I fear?”) to sing during the spoken verses.

Two hymns from the Psalter Hymnals that include the second half other psalm aren’t included in the new hymnals. The gray Psalter Hymnal  includes a versification of the entire psalm by Marie J. Post set to Louis Bourgeois’ Genevan 27, “The LORD Is My Light and My Salvation” (PH87 #27), which uses the rare (for good reason) 11 10 11 10 10 10 10 10 meter. The blue Psalter Hymnal has a versification of vv. 7-14 titled “O Lord, Regard Me When I Cry” (PH57 #49).

(Here’s the tenth 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 and Psalm 40.)

Today (Jan. 12) we kicked off the new semester in grand fashion with Psalm 23, which is the most beloved psalm for good reason. It’s build around a simple, comforting narrative: God is our shepherd and we are his sheep. It contains striking images: “the valley of the shadow of death,” “my cup overflows.” The shepherd story has connections to Israel’s history—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses were all shepherds before David—and is picked up by Jesus, who calls himself the Good Shepherd (John 10) and tells the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:3-7) as an illustration of God’s love. In Christian preaching, art and music, the different shepherd images get mixed together and illuminate one another.

The Revised Common Lectionary assigns Psalm 23 to the fourth Sunday of Easter during all three years and also assigns it to the fourth Sunday of Lent in Year A—which is why we took it up today.

Psalm 23 is well represented in CRC hymnals. Psalms for all Seasons contains 11 musical settings of Psalm 23. (The others in double digits: Psalms 51 and 119 with 15, Psalm 118 with 11, and Psalms 27 and 150 with 10.) Lift Up Your Hearts contains five complete versifications of Psalm 23, more than any other psalm (Psalm 117 gets six versifications but two cover only one verse. Psalms 103, 116, and 119 each get five versifications and Psalms 22, 42, and 95 four, but, again, none of them are complete.) All the Psalm 23 hymns in LUYH and the gray Psalter Hymnal are also included in PFAS.

Of the traditional hymn settings, our class favorites were the first three settings in PFAS, all of which we recognized from the Psalter Hymnal. Andrew played all of them on the organ.

“My Shepherd Will Supply My Need” (PFAS #23A/LUYH #369/PH87 #550), with lyrics by Isaac Watts, is set to RESIGNATION. (RESIGNATION is also the tune to “My Only Comfort” (LUYH #781), a hymn based on the Heidelberg Catechism’s Q&A 1 that we used as the theme song for our most recent summer book club.) A sample is here.

Watts’ third verse finishes a versification of the psalm and closes with a striking interpretation of what it means to live in the house of the Lord:

The sure provisions of my God attend me all my days;
O may your house be my abode and all my work be praise.
There would I find a settled rest, while others go and come
no more a stranger or a guest, but like a child at home.

“The LORD’s My Shepherd” (PFAS #23C/PH87 #161/PH57 #38/HFW #2), set to BROTHER JAMES’ AIR, has lyrics from the 1650 Scottish Psalter, making it even older than the Watts’s version. (A sample is here.) The lyrics are not modernized:

My soul He doth restore again;
And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness,
E’en for His own name’s sake.

PFAS includes the lyrics translated into Spanish and Korean. The hymn doesn’t appear in Lift Up Your Hearts.

“The LORD, My Shepherd, Rules My Life” (PFAS #23B/LUYH #732/PH87 #23)
is set to a traditional hymn tune (CRIMOND) but with a modern versification by Christopher M. Idle “to provide a version of the twenty-third Psalm in familiar meter which would avoid the archaisms and inversions of the established sixteenth-century version from the Scottish Psalter” [=“The LORD’s My Shepherd”?]. A sample is here.

Psalms for All Seasons also contains three other traditional hymns with tunes less familiar to us. “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” (PFAS #23D/LUYH #824) (set to ST. COLUMBA) and “Such Perfect Love My Shepherd Shows” (PFAS #23E) (set to DOMINUS REGIT ME) are two versions of Henry William Baker’s 19th Century hymn.  According to the Psalm 23 notes on the Psalms For All Season web site, “the compilers of the 1906 English Hymnal were denied permission to use Dykes’s original tune [DOMINUS REGIT ME]” so they substituted ST. COLUMBA; now both are associated with the song.

The third (of fifth) verses is based not on Psalm 23, but on the Lost Sheep:

Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed,
but yet in love he sought me;
and on his shoulder gently laid,
and home, rejoicing, brought me.

“Such Perfect Love My Shepherd Shows” modernizes the lyrics, eliminating “thees” and “thys” and changing the opening lines. I couldn’t find an explanation of who altered the lyrics or why  PFAS included both versions. (A sample is of “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” here.) Given the strengths of the other traditional settings, I’d only consider using one of these in a worship service to make the connection between the psalm and the New Testament shepherd images.

“The God of Love My Shepherd Is” (PFAS #23J) has the very oldest lyrics (1633) of any Psalm 23 setting in Psalms for All Seasons but is set to a modern tune by Roy Hopp.

The God of love my Shepherd is, and he that doth me feed:
while he is mine and I am his, what can I want or need?

Of the more contemporary sounding hymns, we most appreciated “Shepherd Me, O God” (PFAS #23H/LUYH #456), a modern versification of Psalm 23 by Marty Haugen with a haunting chorus:

Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants,
beyond my fears, from death into life.

A sample is here. It would probably work best to have soloists or a choir sing the stanzas and the congregation sing the chorus. The chorus of “Shepherd Me, O God” (PFAS #23G/SNC #181) is Psalm for All Seasons’ responsorial setting.

“The Lord’s My Shepherd” (PFAS #23F) is Stuart Townend’s versification of Psalm 23 with a chorus that also draws on Psalm 56:3:

And I will trust in your alone.
And I will trust in you alone,
for your endless mercy follows me,
your goodness will lead me home.

Townend, who co-authored such great 21st Century hymns as “In Christ Alone” (LUYH #770/SWM #208/HFW #254), “The Power of the Cross” (LUYH #177), “Speak, O Lord” (LUYH), and “Behold the Lamb” (LUYH #840), has two other hymns in Psalms for All Seasons: “My Soul Finds Rest in God Alone” (PFAS #62B/LUYH #370) and “My Soul Will Sing” (PFAS #103E). (A sample of Townend’s “The Lord’s My Shepherd” is here.)

“El Señor es mi pastor/My Shepherd Is the Lord” (PFAS #23I/LUYH #368/PH87 #162) is a versification of verses 1-5 (why leave out 6?) translated from Spanish with a short chorus (“My Shepherd is the LORD; nothing indeed shall I want”). A sample is here.

“The Lord Is My Shepherd” (PFAS #23K/SWM #192) is a short round based on vv. 1-2. I can imagine it as a closing song or a response to a confession or other litany. A sample is here.

The Lord is my shepherd; I’ll walk with him always.
He leads me by still waters; I’ll walk with him always
Always, always, I’ll walk with him always.
Always, always, I’ll walk with him always.

The blue Psalter Hymnal has two Psalm 23 settings that don’t appear in CRC subsequent hymnals: “My Shepherd Is the Lord” (PH57 #39) and “The Lord, My Shepherd Holds Me” (PH57 #40). We didn’t sing either of them in class.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

(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.

Here’s the eighth post in my continuing series on the Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class I co-teach with Andrew Friend. Previous posts is the series focused on Psalm 121, Psalm 122, Psalms 2/99, Psalm 72, Psalm 95, Psalm 147 and Psalm 112.)

Working our way through the Revised Common Lectionary (Year A), our class took up Psalm 29 on Oct. 20. The psalm is designated for The Baptism of Our Lord, which is next Sunday (Jan. 12).

Psalm 29 is “a meditation on the splendor of God’s voice as it speaks through creation and elicits the response of God’s people gathered for worship” (PFAS, p. 181). The centerpiece of the psalm is a description of a thunderstorm.

The first section of the psalm (vv. 1-2) is a call to worship addressed to a council of heavenly creatures. The second section (vv. 3-9) pictures a thunderstorm sweeping across northern Palestine, breaking cedars, striking with flashes of lightening, shaking the desert, and stripping forests of oak bare. The thunder is “the voice of the LORD,” a term which is used seven times. The final section (vv. 10-11) pictures the LORD enthroned above the waters giving strength to his people and blessing them with peace.

Since the Canaanite god of thunder was Baal, the psalm subverts Baal worship by ascribing thunder to the LORD. According to the Word Biblical Commentary (Craigie & Tate 2004), “the general image of the storm has been subtly transformed into a tauntlike psalm; the praise of the Lord, by virtue of being expressed in language and imagery associated with the Canaanite weather-god Baal, taunts the weak deity of the defeated foes, namely the Canaanites. Thus, the poet has deliberately utilized Canaanite-type language and imagery in order to emphasize the Lord’s strength and victory, in contrast to the weakness of the inimical Baal” (p. 246).

Connections can also be made between the psalm and the Genesis 1 creation story, the flood story, and the Song of the Sea. Looking forward, the “voice of the LORD… over the waters” brings to mind the voice from heaven speaking at Jesus’ baptism. John’s reference to the “voice of the seven thunders” (Rev. 10:3) may also be a Psalm 29 allusion.

Psalms for All Seasons includes three hymn settings for Psalm 29, two of which are also found in Lift Up Your Hearts.

“Give Glory to God, All You Heavenly Creatures” (PFAS #29C)/LUYH #114/PH87 #29/PH57 #51) is set to ARLES, which has been associated with Psalm 29 since the 1912 Psalter. The 1912 version of the hymn, “Now Unto Jehovah, Ye Sons of the Mighty,” is four stanzas with the middle two corresponding to the “voice of the LORD” section (vv. 3-9). The phrase “voice of Jehovah” appears only twice.

Calvin Seerveld rewrote the lyrics for the 1987 Psalter Hymnal. His first verse is a loose paraphrase of vv. 1-2 ending with a call to listen to the “voice of the LORD”:

Give glory to God, all you heavenly creatures; all glory and power belong to the LORD!
So drop to your knees and respect what is holy, be quiet and listen: the voice of the LORD!  

Stanzas 2-4 are a more faithful paraphrase of the thunder section (vv. 3-9) with “voice of the LORD” appearing seven times. The final stanza returns to the heavenly creatures and their response to the voice of the LORD (which isn’t in the psalm) before picking up v. 11. Seerveld’s versification seems more faithful to the flow of the psalm than the version it replaced.

“Give Glory to God, All You Heavenly Creatures” has been a part of our repertoire at Trinity; a number of years ago I used it in a service featuring very old songs as Psalm 29 is thought to be one of the earliest psalms.

A newer setting of Psalm 29, but with a traditional hymn tune, is Michael Morgan’s “All on Earth and All in Heaven” (PFAS #29A/LUYH #922), which is set to the stately tune EBENEZER.

[EBENEZER is familiar to me as the tune for “Alleluia! Alleluia! Hearts to Heaven” (LUYH #179/PH87 #387). It’s also the tune for “Sing! A New Creation” (LUYH #797/SNC #241), which lent its name to the 2001 CRC hymnal; “Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus” (LUYH #796/HFW #159); “Thy Strong Word” (HFW #220) and “Jesus, Tempted in the Desert” (SNT #16).

Morgan’s hymn is a compressed paraphrase of the psalm with just two verses. The ending highlights the irony of the voice of thunder also blessing his people with peace.

But the Word which set in motion such travails can make them cease; that same voice which tumult beckons in a gentler breath speaks peace.

The performance notes suggest that at the beginning of this section to “allow the singing and accompaniment to diminish until the final measure, ending in a gentle whisper.”

The final Psalm 29 hymn in Psalms for All Seasons is “Hijos de Dios/Angels on High” (PFAS #29B), which is set to a catchy Latin tune. It consists of a short chorus (“Angels on high, and peoples on earth give glory to God, praise God’s splendor and might”) and three short stanzas. The second stanza (“Over the waters, hear the voice of God resounding with thundering power”), based on verse 3, is the only reference to the voice of God; verses 4-10 aren’t in the paraphrase.

Psalms for All Seasons includes two responsorial settings, “Your Voice, O LORD, Is a Voice of Splendor” (PFAS #29D) and an alternate, “Speak Now, O LORD, Speak Your Word of Blessing.” (According to the performance notes: “When celebrating the power and majesty of God throughout this psalm, use the first refrain. When considering the voice of peace and blessing, use the alternative refrain.”) However, Andrew chose the responsorial setting in Sing! A New Creation, “The Voice of God Goes Out to All the World” (SNC #127) for use by our class.

Psalm 112 (like Psalm 111) is an acrostic wisdom psalm; the first Hebrew letter of each line is a successive letter in the Hebrew alphabet. This device probably made the psalm easier for a Hebrew speaker to memorize, but harder (in my experience) for an English speaker because the logical connections between the lines are less apparent.

For instance, the first four verses of Psalm 112 are about the benefits of fearing the Lord and delighting in his commandments and then verse five goes off in a different direction—it is good to be generous in lending—before getting back to the advantages of righteousness.

For whatever reason, this psalm hasn’t been popular with hymn writers and only one Psalm 112-only versification appears in Psalms for All Seasons or any other CRC hymnal. “How Blest Are Those Who Fear the LORD” (PFAS #112A/LUYH #301/PH87 #112/PH57 #223) is one of the 69 hymns to appear in all three Psalter Hymnals and Lift Up Your Hearts with a consistent tune (MELCOMBE). It appears (with a different tune) in the 1912 Psalter of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, which was the first English-language hymnbook approved for use in the CRC and is the source of many psalm settings in CRC hymnals (39 in LUYH and 48 in PFAS).  However, it originates with the earlier 1887 Psalter (source of 13 hymns in LUYH and 11 in PFAS).

Here is the first stanza of the 1887 version:

How blest the man that fears the Lord,
And makes his law his chief delight;
His seed shall share his great reward,
And on the earth be men of might.

The 1912 version (which appeared in the first two Psalter Hymnals):

How blest the man that fears the Lord,
And greatly loves God’s holy will;
His children share his great reward,
And blessings all their days shall fill.

The 1987 Psalter Hymnal update (which appears in LUYH and PFAS):

How blest are those who fear the LORD
and greatly love God’s holy will.
Their children share their great reward,
and blessings all their days shall fill.

I looked at some other versifications of Psalm 112, including three by Isaac Watts that went out of style before the turn of the 20th Century, and they all sound pretty similar.

However, PFAS does contain a recent Psalm 111 & 112 hymn called “Alleluia! Laud and Blessing” (PFAS #111B), which is set to WEISSE FLAGGEN. (I missed this when we briefly looked at Psalm 112 during our Sunday school class session on Psalm 15.) It’s a paraphrase, not a strict versification, that does justice to the themes of the psalms without including every alphabetical detail. According to the PFAS performance notes: “This free paraphrase by Michael Morgan holds the two psalms together. St. 1, based on Ps. 111, praises God’s wonderful works and faithfulness. St. 2, based on Ps. 112, further recounts God’s gifts to humanity and our obligation to reflect God’s graciousness in how we live. The final stanza reflects both psalms together, emphasizing that it is the fear of the Lord that brings us to wisdom (Ps. 111:10).”

Morgan is a Presbyterian musician and scholar who has written many psalm settings (including 23 found in PFAS and 16 in LUYH). These include “O Shepherd, Hear and Guide Your Flock” (PFAS #80C/LUYH #64), which we sang at Trinity during the fourth week of Advent as our Psalm 80 setting, and “Trees” (PFAS #I), based on tree references in Psalms 1, 26, 52 & 92, which is our Sunday school class’ opening song.

Psalms for All Seasons does include a Psalm 112 responsorial setting, “Happy Are They Who Delight” (PFAS #112B/SNC #273).

(Previous posts in my continuing series on our Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class focused on Psalm 121, Psalm 122, Psalms 2/99, Psalm 72, Psalm 95, and Psalm 147.)

I’m currently planning next week’s worship service (Jan. 5), which is the Second Sunday after Christmas and has Psalm 147 as the designated psalm in the Revised Common Lectionary. We discussed Psalm 147 and sang different settings in our Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class back on Oct. 13.

Psalm 147 is part of the collection of Hallelujah psalms that ends the Psalter. The psalm affirms that the God who rules creation is the same God who has a covenant with Israel and who cares for the humble and broken hearted. It consists of three stanzas: God rebuilds Jerusalem and heals the broken hearted (vv. 1-6); God, the ruler of the natural world, takes pleasure in those who trust in him (vv. 7-11); and God, who commands the weather, makes Israel prosperous and secure, and gives it his Law (vv. 12-20). The Word Biblical Commentary (Allen 2002) titles the psalm “God of Stars and Broken Hearts.”

There are only a few settings of Psalm 147 in CRC hymnals, but most of them are good options for congregational singing. Both settings from the blue Psalter Hymnal also appear in the gray Psalter Hymnal and in Psalms for All Seasons. The one most familiar to me is “O Praise the LORD, for It Is Good” (PFAS #147D/LUYH #549/PH87 #187/PH57 #302), which also appears in Lift Up Your Hearts. It has lyrics from the 1912 Psalter and is set to MINERVA. (The 1912 Psalter and 1957 Psalter Hymnal version is titled “Praise Ye the Lord, for It Is Good.” The versification was lightly updated for the 1987 Psalter Hymnal.) It covers the first 13 verses of the psalm.

O praise the LORD, for it is good to sing unto our God; ’tis right and pleasant for his saints to tell his praise abroad.

The other traditional setting is “Sing Praise to Our Creator” (PFAS #147E/PH87 #147/PH57 #303), which doesn’t appear in LUYH. It is set to HARTFORD. The title in the blue PH is “O Sing Ye Hallelujah”; the lyrics were extensively revised and shortened (from six stanzas to five) for the gray PH by Marie Post. It covers all of the psalm.

My favorite setting is “Sing to God, with Joy and Gladness” (PFAS #147C/SNC #29/HFW #12), which doesn’t appear in Lift Up Your Hearts, but is in Sing! A New Creation and Hymns of Worship. The tune (GLENDON) sounds like an Jewish folk song with its lively syncopation, but is a modern composition by John L. Bell of the Iona Community, who wrote or arranged many of the responsorial settings in LUYH. It covers vv. 1-11. (Here’s a sample.)

Sing to God, with joy and gladness, hymns and psalms of gratitude; with the voice of praise discover that to worship God is good.

The final hymn setting is “Praise the Lord Who Heals” (PFAS #147B/LUYH #442), which was written by Norman Agatep, a member of the Filipino Catholic music ministry Bukas Palad. (Here’s a sample.) It strikes me as better suited for a choir than for congregational singing. It focuses on the first six verses of the psalm.

The responsorial setting in PFAS is “Alleluia, Alleluia” (PFAS #147) set to a Honduran tune arranged by John L. Bell. An alternative refrain is the MOZART ALLELUIA).

Psalms for All Seasons also includes a responsive “Prayer of Praise” (PFAS #147F) by John Witvliet.

(Previous posts in my continuing series on our Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class focused on Psalm 121, Psalm 122, Psalms 2/99, Psalm 72, and Psalm 95.)

Here’s yet another post in my continuing series on our Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class. (Previous posts focused on Psalm 121, Psalm 122, Psalms 2/99, and Psalm 72)

This past Sunday (Dec. 15) our Sunday school class took up Psalm 95. The psalm itself has two complementary halves. The first (vv. 1-7) is an extended call to worship.

O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

The second half (8-11) is a sermon to those gathered to worship, warning not to harden our hearts as our ancestors did in the wilderness.

Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.” Therefore in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest.”

Eugene Petersen, in his Praying with the Psalms (1993), makes an interesting connection between the first and second haves:

 The opposite of worship is wandering. The alternatives to the “Let us worship and bow down,” in which we give our attention to God’s love and direction, are strife (Meribah) and temptation (Massah), in which we look out for ourselves and snatch what we can in a trackless desert.

Psalms for All Seasons’ selection of Psalm 95 settings is an embarrassment of riches—seven hymns, with both new and familiar tunes, and a responsorial setting—“Oh, That Today You Would Listen to God’s Voice” (PFAS #95E).

Four of the hymns are set to traditional hymn tunes.

“Now with Joyful Exultation”  (PFAS #95D/LUYH #512/PH87 #95/PH57 #184) has lyrics from the 1912 Psalter and is one of only 69 hymns to appear in all three Psalter Hymnals (1934, 1957 & 1987) and Lift Up Your Hearts. It is set to BEECHER, which is a familiar tune written for “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” (LUYH pairs that hymn with HYFRYDOL).

Now with joyful exultation let us sing to God our praise; to the Rock of our salvation loud hosannas let us raise.

“Come, Worship God” (PFAS #95G/LUYH #509/SNC #25) is the other traditional hymn that is also found in Lift Up Your Hearts. It is set to O QUANTA QUALIA (“Here from All Nations”).

Come, worship God, who is worthy of honor; enter God’s presence with thanks and a song! You are the rock of your people’s salvation, to whom our jubilant praises belong.

“Come, Let Us Praise the Lord” (PFAS #95A) is set to DARWALL’S 148TH (“Rejoice, the Lord is King”).

Come, let us praise the Lord, with joy our God acclaim, his greatness tell abroad
and bless his saving name. Lift high your songs before his throne to whom alone all praise belongs.

“Come with All Joy to Sing to God” (PFAS #95H), the final traditional hymn, is paired with GERMANY.

Come with all joy to sing to God our saving rock, the living Lord; in glad thanksgiving seek his face with songs of victory and grace.

All these hymns begin with an invitation to praise God, but they differ in how they deal with the second half of the psalm.  Two turn the warning at the end of the psalm into a promise. “Come, Worship God” ends with “Peace be to all who remember your goodness, trust in your world, and rejoice in your way,” while “Come, Let Us Praise the Lord” concludes with God’s ways leading “at last, all troubles past, to perfect rest.”

“Come with All Joy to Sing to God” devotes four stanzas to vv. 1-7 and two to vv. 8-11—so getting to the warning requires singing the final verses. “Now with Joyful Exultation,” with lyrics from the 1912 Psalter, spells out the warning in stanza 4:

While he offers peace and pardon let us hear His voice today, lest, if we our hearts should harden, we should perish in the way—lest to us, so unbelieving, he in judgment should declare: “Your, so long my Spirit grieving, never in my rest will share.”

“Come, Let Us Worship and Bow Down” (PFAS #95B/LUYH #510) is Dave Doherty’s short song based on vv 6-7.

“Come Now, and Lift Up Your Hearts” (PFAS #95F) is a song from India written with leader and congregation parts. While we were discussing how to sing it, Andrew kept referring to the “repeats” that the rest of us couldn’t see. It turns out that he has a launch tour version of Psalms for All Seasons that had the song written differently—with repeats but no leader or congregation parts. My spiral bound copy and the copies the church bought had the corrected versions. The launch tour version also has no title for “Miren qué bueno/Oh, Look and Wonder” (PFAS #133D).  (Justin Struik, you should check your copy to see if it’s one of these rarities.) Once we all got on the same page (literarily), we did enjoy the song. (Here is a sample of “Come Now, and Lift Up Your Hearts.”)

“Let Not Your Hearts Be Hardened” (PFAS #95I) is the only setting that takes its title from  second half of the Psalm and the only one that mentions Meribah and Massah by name. The chorus is:

Let not your hearts be hardened, if today you hear God’s voice, if today you hear God’s voice.

It might be difficult for congregational singing. Naomi thought the setting might work best with three singers who sing together on the chorus and take turns on the stanzas.

The final setting in Psalm for All Seasons is “Come Let Us Sing” (PFAS #95C), which is a chant. We haven’t learned to chant yet (we intend to next semester) so we got off to a rough start, but after we saw the performance note that claimed that “This singing of this four-part chant is surprisingly easy,” we gave it another try and were able to stay together.

We didn’t have time for songs in the Psalter Hymnals. The gray Psalter Hymnal had a second setting that didn’t make it into LUYH despite being to the tune of GENEVAN 95: “Come, Sing for Joy to the Lord God” (PH87 #173). The blue Psalter Hymnal had additional three settings: “O Come Before the Lord” (PH57 #183), “O Come and to Jehovah Sing” (PH57 #185) and “Sing to the Lord, the Rock of Our Salvation” (PH57 #186)

Here’s another post in my continuing series on our Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class. (Previous posts focused on Psalm 121, Psalm 122, and Psalms 2/99.)

Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the king’s son; that he may rule your people righteously and the poor with justice; that the mountains may bring property to the people, and the hills, in righteousness.

Psalm 72:1-7 & 18-19 is assigned by the Revised Common Lectionary to the Second Sunday of Advent in Year A; we took up the psalm in our class on Sept. 15.

Psalm 72 is royal psalm, possibly written by David for Solomon. It concludes the Second Book of Psalms. According to Tate (2000):

Psalm 72 offers a glimpse of the ideal relationship among ruler, God, and people. The people pray for the empowerment of the king, who uses the gifts God gives, not for his own benefit or even for the benefit of the people, but for the least of all among the people.

The responsorial reading in Psalms for All Seasons is “In His Days Justice WIll Flourish” (PFAS #72C)

The Psalm 72 settings in Psalms for All Seasons and Lift Up Your Hearts feature three majestic tunes: ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVÖGELEIN, DUKE STREET and CORONATION.

ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVÖGELEIN is paired with “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed” (PFAS #72A/LUYH #109/PH87 #72/SNC #120/HFW #4)

Hail to the Lord’s Anointed, great David’s greater Son! Hail, in the time appointed, your reign on earth begun!

James Montgomery wrote eight stanzas for the hymn, of which the CRC hymnals use #1 (“Hail to the Lord’s anointed, great David’s greater son”), #2 (“He comes with rescue speedy to those who suffer wrong”), #3 (“He shall come down like showers upon the fruitful earth”) and #7 (“Kings shall fall down before you, and gold and incense bring”).

Looking through hymn’s page on hymnary.org, I noticed that some hymnals use #5 (“For Him shall prayer unceasing and daily vows ascent”) and/or #8 (“O’er every foe victorious, He on His throne shall rest”). I didn’t see any that used #4 (“Arabia’s desert-ranger to him shall bow the knee”) or #6 (“The heav’ns which now conceal Him in counsels deep and wise”)

I’d happily sing more than just four verses.

Most hymnals don’t use ES FLOG EIN KLEINS WALDVÖGELEIN for “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed” and the tune is used with several other hymns. It can be found in other CRC hymnals as the tune for “Song of Mary/My Soul Proclaims with Wonder” (SNC #102) and “Are You the One” (SNT #66), which is based on Matthew 11:1-6.

“Are you the one,” they asked him,“the one who is to come, or must we go on waiting for God’s own promised one?” He gave John’s friends an answer, so simple, yet profound. “See for yourself,” said Jesus, “the signs are all around.”

DUKE STREET is paired with Isaac Watt’s “Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun” (PFAS #72B/LUYH #219/PH87 #412/PH57 #399/HFW #77), which first appeared in him hymnal Psalms of David, Imitated (1719). It is one of only 69 hymns to appear in all three Psalter Hymnals (1934, 1957 & 1987) and in Lift Up Your Hearts. The hymn draws upon vv. 5, 8 & 12-19 of Psalm 72 and makes Jesus the focus of the psalm.

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun does its successive journeys run, his kingdom stretch from shore to shore, till moons shall wax and wane no more.

DUKE STREET is also used in Lift Up Your Hearts for “I Know that My Redeemer Lives” (LUYH #193/HFW #108).

CORONATION is most closely associated with “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” (LUYH #601/PH87 #471), but it’s also the tune for “Now Blessed Be the Lord Our God” (LUYH #953/PH87 #603), which is a doxology based on Psalm 71:18-19.

In my notes from the class, I marked “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed” as our likely Psalm 72 hymn, but we ended up using Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19 as our assurance of pardon and “Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun” immediately after as the song of response. “Now Blessed Be the Lord Our God” was our closing doxology.

The remaining Psalm 72 setting in PFAS is “Estan en tu mano/In Your Hand Alone” (PFAS #72D).

We didn’t sing any of the other Psalm settings in the Psalter Hymnals: “Christ is King and He Shall Reign” (PH87 #359), “Christ Shall Have Dominion” (PH87 #541/PH57 #135), “O God, to Thine Anointed King” (PH57 #133) and “His Wide Dominion Shall Endure” (PH57 #134). Each of these versifies part of Psalm 72.

Here’s another post in my continuing series on our Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class. (Previous posts focused on Psalm 121 and Psalm 122.)

The Revised Common Lectionary gives a choice of either Psalm 2 or 99 for Transfiguration Sunday during Year A. Neither psalm has many settings in CRC hymnals so we took up both of them in our Psalms for All Seasons class on Dec. 1.

The first two psalms set up themes that run throughout the Psalter. Psalm 1 is about the two paths of righteousness and wickedness and the consequences of choosing each path (“The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked is doomed”). Psalm 2 is about the Davidic king as God’s representative.

Psalm 2, which has four stanzas, was likely used in coronation ceremonies. The first stanza reports on the nations and their kings conspiring against the new Davidic king . (Royal succession would have been a dangerous time when plots were hatched against the new king and his nation.) The second stanza shows God’s perspective on their plans: he laughs at them with derision. The third stanza is spoken by the king: “I will tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, ‘You are my son; today I have begotten you.’” The fourth stanza is a warning to the kings of the earth to serve the LORD and his king.

These four parts are brought out clearly in “A Dramatized Reading” (PFAS #2B) of the psalm taken from Calvin Seerveld’s book Voicing God’s Psalms. The four stanzas are read by (1) “the wise cantor,” (2) “another liturgete, perhaps a priest,” (3) “princely ruler taking official part in the liturgy,” and (4) “wise cantor, again.” The final verse is read by the “congregated chorus.”  The reading was well-liked by our class.

The responsorial setting for Psalm 2 in Psalms for All Seasons is “You Are My Son; This Day I have Begotten You” (PFAS #2D). That line is recommended to be sung for Transfiguration Sunday. The alternate text is “The LORD is King; with trembling bow in worship.”

PFAS has only two other song settings for Psalm 2: “Why Do the Nations Rage” (PFAS #2A) and “Why This Dark Conspiracy” (PFAS #2C/LUYH #214), which is the only Psalm 2 setting in Lift Up Your Hearts. “Why This Dark Conspiracy” has a confusing structure: A—B—choral line (X4)—B— choral line (X1).

The setting for Psalm 2 in both the 1957 & 1987 Psalter Hymnals is “Wherefore Do the Nations Rage” (PH87 #2/PH57 #3), which has lyrics from the 1912 Psalter (updated for the gray Psalter Hymnal). The tune (MONSEY CHAPEL) is more upbeat and easier to sing than the darker settings in PFAS; the lyrics also stay closer to the text of the psalm. (I don’t believe our class sang it though.)

Psalms for All Seasons also contains “A Litany for Responsible Exercise of Authority” (PFAS #2E) by John Witvliet that would be good for use in worship near an election. It calls for “all those in authority,” “rulers of the nations,” “our own elected officials,” and “all citizens” to “submit and take refuge in God.”

Psalm 99 is a hymn of praise to God’s righteous rule. Like much of Book 4 of the Psalms it looks back to Israel’s experience in the wilderness as evidence of God’s power and ability to keep his promises.

Marvin Tate (2000) sums up the implications of Psalm 99 thusly:

The monarchs of Israel are dead and their kingdoms are no more, fallen as all human kingdoms are destined to do, but the Great King above all gods reigns in power and glory, though the full measure of that glory is not yet perceived by the peoples of the world. Nevertheless, it is a time of trembling, of shouting, of singing, and proclaiming.

The Psalm 99 responsorial in Psalms for All Seasons is “The LORD is King; With Trembling Bow in Worship” (PFAS #99B).

The only hymn based on Psalm 99 in Psalms for All Seasons is “The LORD Is King, Enthroned In Might” (PFAS #99A/LUYH #726), which we liked better than any of the Psalm 2 settings. It’s set to the tune ELLACOMBE, which I recognize as the Palm Sunday hymn “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna” (LUYH #145), but which also appears three other times in Lift Up Your Hearts: “Fill Thou My Life, O LORD, My God” (LUYH #356); “For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free” (LUYH #679); and a Psalm 33 setting, “Rejoice You Righteous in the Lord” (LUYH #22/PFAS #33B).

ELLACOMBE’s five appearances in LUYH put it in a three-way tie with CONSOLATION/MORNING SONG/KENTUCKY HARMONY (AKA “the tune so nice, they named it thrice”) and LASST UNS ERFREUEN (“All Creatures of our God and King”) as the most popular tunes in the new hymnal.

ELLACOMBE is also used in the 1957 Psalter Hymnal for one of the Psalm 99 settings (with lyrics from the 1912 Psalter), but  the tune was changed to NONE BUT CHRIST (another upbeat tune) for the 1987 Psalter Hymnal and the title changed from “Jehovah Reigns in Majesty” to “The LORD God Reigns in Majesty” (PH87 #99/PH57 #194). The blue Psalter Hymnal also contains another Psalm 99 setting, “God Jehovah Reigns” (PH57 #193).

Our favorite song from the collection of Psalm 2 and Psalm 99 settings was  “The LORD Is King, Enthroned In Might.” However, some class members thought that Psalm 2,  with its explicit reference to Sonship, was more appropriate for Transfiguration Sunday. While Psalm 99 is a joyful celebration of God’s rule, Psalm 2 contains a dark current of opposition to this rule, make it appropriate for a holy day about both the revealing of Jesus’ glory and the road forward to the cross.