For God alone my soul does wait

For God alone my soul does wait

In silence and in solitude;

My safety is in God alone;

My soul is sheltered and renewed.

God is my sole foundation strong,

And my salvation sure and true;

My fortress firm in which I trust,

And which no foe can still undo.

For God alone my soul does wait

In silence and in solitude;

My hope lives only in the Lord,

My soul is sheltered and renewed.

Deliverance and honor true

Come only from my God on high;

My mighty rock is only God,

My refuge when I mourn and cry.

O trust our God in all your ways;

O peoples, trust your Lord above!

Pour out your heart, cry out your prayers

To God our refuge and our love.

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, March 2020, after Psalm 62:1-2, 5, 7-8

MUSIC: Suggested tune CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM, Sarum plainsong, 9^th cent. (LM)

The ongoing isolation, I suppose, was inevitably going to drive me to the Psalms, where a number of texts seemingly attuned to the current situation live. The first line of the psalm itself ("For God alone my soul waits in silence") was particularly arresting; I almost hated to paraphrase it. I was deliberately selective about which verses to set, which I suppose disqualifies this hymn from ever appearning in a true psalter, but oh well. It didn't immediately strike me, but setting the text to a chant tune, ideally sung a cappella, also seems appropriate to the time.

When hands can no more reach and hold

When hands can no more reach and hold, 

            Or arms no more embrace,

When lives must now be held apart

            By yawning empty space; 

Great God, now give your children hope

            In place of sad despair,

And hold our hearts in your good peace,

            Our breaking souls repair.

God, teach us in this lonely time

            To hold in yearning prayer

Those lives and souls who touch our own,

            And give them to your care.

Let not our gnawing fear take hold

            And make us feel alone,

But teach us, Lord, to hold this truth

            Until this scourge is gone:

Those souls we’ve been loved by and love

            Are still with us this day;

That friendship touch is not denied,

            Nor is it gone away.

Help us reach out, though not with hands

            Or arms or holy kiss,

To all those friends and loved ones dear

            Whose presence now we miss.

Our prayers for health and wholeness hear,

            And give our souls release

To hope against that day when we

            Can reunite in peace.

Sustain our souls, set free our minds,

            Renew our battered love

On earth, e’en now in solitude,

            As in your realms above.

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, 2020.

MUSIC: Suggested tune RESIGNATION, USA folk melody,

            Lewis’s Beauties of Harmony, 1828 (CMD)

            

A hymn of the moment. As the grim reality of Covid-19 settled in and the necessity of isolation and "social distancing" became all the clearer, I was reminded (oddly enough, but not really?) of the Carolyn Winfrey Gillette hymn title "When hands reach out and fingers trace." The obvious question became "but what happens when we can't do that?" This hymn is a feeble attempt at an answer, or less an answer than a response?