Hymn: Praise the Lord, God’s Glories Show
LindaJo McKim writes, “The text was Henry Francis Lyte’s
original version of Psalm 150. It appeared in Spirit of the Psalms (1834) and was altered by the author for the
enlarged edition of 1836. The present collection is a slight variation of the
1834 text with the word ‘God’s’ replacing ‘His’ in the first line.
Hymn: O Savior, in This Quiet Place
Fred Pratt Green wrote this text following a request by the
St. Barnabas Counseling Centre, where it was first sung in 1974. Hymnologist
and minister Erik Routley called the hymn “a little gem;” LindaJo McKim reports
that it has become widely used at healing services. I found the fifth and sixth
stanzas to be particularly appropriate given Caroline’s sermon this week, and
they fit well with the progression of the hymn’s tone.
Hymn: Be Still, My Soul
This hymn’s first appearance came in a German songbook in
1752, when it was published in six stanzas. Jane Borthwick translated five of
the six in 1855 for Hymns from the Land
of Luther. Modern hymnals have usually omitted the third and fifth stanzas.
They read:
Be still, my soul:
when dearest friends depart,
and all is darkened
in the vale of tears,
then shalt thou
better know his love, his heart,
who comes to soothe thy sorrow and
thy fears.
Be still, my
soul: thy Jesus can repay
from his own fondness all he takes away.
Be still, my soul:
begin the song of praise
on earth, be leaving, to thy Lord on high:
acknowledge him in
all thy words and ways,
so shall he view thee with a well-pleased
eye.
Be still,
my soul: the Sun of life divine
through passing clouds
shall but more brightly shine.
Anthem: Now Thank We All Our God
Perhaps the most well known hymn to ever come out of
Germany, the first two stanzas were written by Martin Rinkart around 1630 as a
table prayer before a meal. They are based on a text from the apocryphal book
of Ecclesiasticus 50:22-24: “And now bless the God of all, who everywhere works
great wonders, who fosters growth from our birth.” The final stanza serves as a
Trinitarian doxology.
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