This is the day the Lord has made

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice! Be glad!

Save us, O Lord; let all our lives be in your armor clad. 

 

Blessed is the one who comes to us, who comes in God's own name.

Let us give blessing from God's house, his honor to proclaim.

 

God is the Lord, who shows us light; God shows us life and light.

Now let our offering be raised up, upon the altar's height.

 

God is our Lord, and only God; to God we lift our praise.

God is our Lord! Now let us all exalt him all our days.

 

Now we give thanks unto the Lord; for God alone is good. 

God's mercy is forevermore and has for ages stood.

 

 

Text: Charles Spence Freeman, October 2022, after Psalm 118:24-29 and Isaac Watts's "This Is the Day the Lord Hath Made."

MUSIC: Tune NUN DANKET ALL' UND BRINGET EHR', Johann Crüger, c.1647.

 

 

I had chosen the Watts hymn for a service this coming Sunday (10/9/22), and also for a hymn devotional lesson during the week. Delving into the hymn and its origins, and wondering at some of Watts's choices, somehow turned into writing a version of my own from the source psalm verses, staying away from Watts's Christianizing impulse and trying to let the psalm speak on its own terms. Make of it what you will. 

Psalm 146 (a collaboration!)

 It's been a while since I posted here, but that doesn't mean I haven't written anything. This link will take you to Psalm 146, a paraphrase of that psalm written in collaboration with Greg Scheer. Folks who follow congregational song will likely recognize the name (his work does show up in Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal). 

Somehow he got my name, apparently from someone involved with The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, and he invited me to try out a psalm for him to set. Psalm 146 has been my favorite psalm for a while, I think, and no one else had claimed it, so I gave it a shot.

If you actually look at the hymns I typically post here, you'll know that virtually all of them are written to existing hymn tunes (or the occasional folk tune or other), and Scheer's style is typically different. This was the occasion to stretch myself, which I should probably do if I intend to continue writing words for congregational song (which feels like a calling at this point, so...). 

Permissions for use would need to come from Scheer at this point, if that is something anyone would intend to do. For me, it's been a new and enlightening experience and one I'd be happy to do again, if I'm not getting interrupted by travel and medical exams and other stuff. 

That isn't the only thing I've been working on; I'm trying to do English versifications of Japanese hymns, if you can believe that. But I feel something of my own coming on, so perhaps it will show itself before the end of the month. 

For God alone my soul does wait, alt. tune, revised

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

With silence and with 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; alt. January 2021

MUSIC: Suggested tune CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM, Sarum plainsong, 9^th cent. (LM); alternate tune O WALY WALY, English folk melody

It's not often I have to say that I've revised a text because of something that came up in my Hebrew prep time for a sermon. That said, I've revised this text because of something that came up in my Hebrew prep time for a sermon. Just two words (or one word twice, more precisely) in the third stanza, but it seemed to matter. 

For God alone my soul does wait (alternate tune)

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); 

    alternate tune O WALY WALY, English folk melody

The text came about early in coronatide, as a response to the isolation of the early period. Psalm 62 turns up in the lectionary for the third Sunday after Epiphany, as it happens. Because of our church's streaming situation and the streaming licenses we do (and don't) hold, it became necessary to adapt a different tune to the text for our usage.

I lift my voice to cry unto the Lord

I lift my voice to cry unto the Lord; 

I raise my pleading to my God on high.

I tell my trouble to the Holy One

Who knows my fainting soul and fearful sigh.

When I go out and danger lies in wait,

See, there is none to care or comfort show.

No refuge comes before my weary eye;

Hear, Lord, for I am brought down grieving low.

I cry to you, my refuge and my hope,

To save and keep me from the ones who hate,

Oh, hear my weeping and my anxious call,

And lead me from this fearful prison’s gate.

O God, I give you all my thanks and praise,

For you will ever work for good in me;

You are my strength as long as I shall live,

And you my hope for all eternity.

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, 2020, after Psalm 142

MUSIC: Suggested tunes:

            SURSUM CORDA (Smith), Alfred Morton Smith, 1941

                        (permission not available for reproduction)

            Or  MORECAMBE, Frederick Cook Atkinson, 1870

The ongoing enforced isolation keeps driving me to darker and more obscure psalms. Apparently Psalm 142 wasn't deemed suitable for lectionary use (though I would think anyone working in prison ministry might find it useful), but it may resonate in the current moment, even if the "persecutors" of the psalm's text are more internal than external. (On the other hand, the "ones who hate" are sadly too real and too plentiful today.) I've tagged it as a lament, though it isn't strictly so, because frankly at this moment it's close enough. As is usually the case with the darker psalms, the note of hope comes at the end, which I have taken the liberty of expressing as one both for "as long as I live" and "for all eternity."

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.

Psalm 97

The Lord is Sovereign o’er the earth;

            Be glad, you lands both far and near.

Enrobed in clouds, your throne is set

            On justice and on righteous fear.

A fire before you routs your foes.

            Your lightning splits the fearful night;

The mountains melt before your face,

            The heavens declare your righteous might.

All peoples see your glory, Lord;

            Idolaters are put to shame;

False gods shall fall before you, Lord,

            Before your true and holy Name.

For You are Lord o’er all the earth,

            You save your people from your foes;

Those who hate evil know your love,

            Before them your protection goes.

Your light shines for the righteous ones,

            And gladness for the true of heart.

Rejoice, you just ones, in the Lord

            And in God’s praises sing your part.

Alleluia.

TEXT: Psalm 97, para. CSF, 2010

MUSIC: Tune GONFALON ROYAL (Glory to God #304), Percy C. Buck, 1918.