Praise the Lord, O my soul (Psalm 146)

          

Refrain:

Praise the Lord, O my soul, God all-knowing and all-seeing;

I'll sing praise to my God for as long as I have being.

Praise the Lord, O my soul.

 

Put no trust in mortal hands

Given to war and making mayhem;

They will die and be buried,

And their plans will perish with them

Refrain

 

Let our hope be in the Lord,

The Creator of all living;

Who gives food to the hungry

And whose justice is life-giving.

Refrain

 

The Lord sets the prisoners free

And gives sight to eyes once sightless.

God lifts up those bowed over,

And God's love enwraps the righteous.

Refrain

 

Our Lord keeps a watchful eye

On the orphan, widow, stranger;

Over all generations

God will reign and shield from danger.

Refrain

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2026, after Psalm 146.

MUSIC: Tune WILD MOUNTAIN THYME, Irish melody.

 

 

This one had to stay under wraps for a while because reasons, but it is now free. I'm pretty sure Psalm 146 comes up in the lectionary at some point - several times, actually... 

 

 

 

 

Give thanks to the Lord

Give thanks to the Lord, and call on God's name;

To all peoples now God's great works proclaim.

Let those who seek God live rejoicing in heart,

To God's holy name now let each sing our part.

 

Now seek out the Lord; in God's strength abide;

In God's presence stay and dwell and reside.

Remember the wonderful works God has done,

The judgments God speaks as the High Holy One.

 

The Lord is our God, whose judgments prevail,

Whose covenants will endure without fail

Through all generations, again and again;

O praise the Lord always, forever! Amen!

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, August 2026; after Psalm 105:1-8.

MUSIC: Tune LAUDATE DOMINUM, C. Hubert H. Parry, 1894.

 

 

I haven't had much success with psalm settings. Nonetheless here is a setting of the beginning of Psalm 105, which appears in the lectionary for Ordinary 22A. 

 

 

 

 

 

The stars in the sky

The stars in the sky, see the courses they run;

The planets encircle the glorious sun.

In motion, rotation, in every great thing,

The heavenly bodies in harmony sing.

 

Hear melodies grunted or hummed in the field,

To warn or to woo or to call or to yield;

Creations and creatures, in great or small things,

From land or from water, the natural world sings.

 

The ancients proclaimed it with reverent delight;

Now scientists hear it in depth and at height.

We humans, late creatures, what have we to bring?

Now lift up your voices; in harmony sing!

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, July 2026.

MUSIC: Tune MUELLER, James R. Murray, 1887.

 

 

After hearing (online) a sectional, "The Sounds of Science: God's Wonders to Perform," given by Jan Kraybill, FHS, at the 2026 conference of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada at Princeton University, 22 July 2026.

 

 

 

 

Let our hearts be broken, alternate tune

Let our hearts be broken, let our souls be torn;

For the chaos 'round us, let us weep and mourn.

Violence and hatred, practiced in your name?

Your true gospel twisted into fear and shame?

 

Refrain:

Let our hearts be broken, let our souls be torn;

For the chaos 'round us, let us weep and mourn.

 

How have we stood silent for so many years

While this anti-gospel stoked up angry fears?

Why did we not speak out until so, so late?

When the lie was shouted, why did we still wait?

Refrain 

 

Now our call to answer will no longer wait:

Speaking truth to falsehood, speaking love to hate;

Ev'n amidst such violence, injuries and pains,

Bearing witness only to the Christ who reigns.

Refrain 

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2026.

MUSIC: Tune WYE VALLEY, James Mountain, 1876.

 

 

One of those inevitable attempts to express in a hymn some kind of response to <gestures around wildly> all this. Set to the alternate tune, with refrain.

 

 

 

 

The God Who Sees

When Hagar fled from Sarah's wrath into the wilderness,

God moved an angel to come down and ask of her distress.

"I'm running from my owner's wife, whom I can never please."

She knew not yet that she had come before the God who sees.

 

The angel told her to return, that in God's great design

The son she bore would be the first of his prolific line.

She wondered how this Lord could give pronouncements such as these;

And in her wonder named this Lord to be the God who sees.

 

A woman drawing from a well was called out for a drink;

Samaritan woman, Jewish man - she knew not what to think.

She questioned him, and his replies left her so ill at ease;

She knew not yet that she had come before the God who sees.

 

She knew he was a prophet, yet he clearly was much more;

He told her everything she'd done in all her life before.

She wondered how this man could give pronouncements such as these;

And in her wonder knew this man to be the God who sees.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, June 2026, after Genesis 16 and John 4.

MUSIC: Tune RESIGNATION, USA folk melody, Lewis's Beauties of Harmony, 1828.

 

 

In a session on neglected figures in hymnody (as in hymns about, not writers), the subject of biblical women inevitably came up. Of those women somehow Hagar, the servant girl of Sarah's who got rather badly treated, formed a couple of stanzas of a hymn and wouldn't let me put it aside. Then out of nowhere the woman at the well in John 4 (who wasn't even mentioned in the session) showed up saying "hey, what about me?" Since both had the experience of being uniquely seen by God, it worked well enough to make a hymn. It might not be finished, but I need to let it settle for a while. 

 

 

 

God, our Creator

God, our Creator, all of life creating,

You bless your people and our needs provide!

Yet we still groan, as if our lives were lacking;

In your abundance, put our fears aside.

 

God, our Creator, heaven declares your glory.

See how the sun shines out across the sky!

Yet we befoul and cloud its shine and splendor;

Show us anew your glory from on high.

 

God, our Creator, by your word creating,

In whom our hope is founded and made real,

Still we betray you, spoiling what you give us;

Set our minds right, restore us with your zeal.

 

God, our Creator, bountifully blessing,

Lavishly giving for our needs each day!

Still we complain that all is insufficient.

Teach us in love to seek your holy way.

 

God, our Creator, all you make we squander;

Heaven, earth, and seas we plunder and destroy.

Set us aright to live within creation

With adoration, wonder, hope, and joy.

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, July 2026.

MUSIC: Tune DONNE SECOURS, Genevan Psalter, 1551. 

 

 

 It hasn't even been two weeks but I already can't remember what prompted this one. Probably something at the Worship & Music Conference I had attended that week. Since I took it down on the Notes function on my phone, I clearly wasn't planning to write a hymn at that particular moment, but it happens that way sometimes. 

 

 

 

When creatures meant to roam the wild

When creatures meant to roam the wild

find freedom snatched away,

in cages locked or bound in chains

and suffering from our wounds and pains,

forgive us, God, we pray.

 

Stout lions, meant to roam in grasslands

free and unrestrained,

or tigers of the forest lands

are captured by foul human hands,

for human fun detained.

 

Sleek panthers, cougars, leopards, and

bobcats and cheetahs too,

were made by God for roaming free,

not held as "curiosity,"

bound in a "roadside zoo."

 

Those who exploit our human yen

for entertaining sights

breed creatures such for human gaze

in painful and unnatural ways,

all for our vain delights.

 

For creatures bound in such conditions,

God, we humbly pray;

but even more, strike down our yen

for painful fun, and teach us then

to hate such harmful play.

 

Teach us respect for all of life

in each and every way;

teach us to love them in their place,

not snatch them from their sacred space;

Good God, change us today.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, July 2026

MUSIC: Tune REST, Frederick Charles Maker, 1887

 

 

Prompted by a discussion at this morning's Routley Lecture at the PAM Worship & Music Conference, on creation (specifically "critters") in hymnody (short form: there's not much). I do have "All creatures of our God on high" on the record, but the discussion provoked another text, on a darker side of human fascination with wild cats.