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.