Give thanks to God, for he is good, the everlasting Giver

Between the shortest and longest Psalms comes one of the greatest. It combines personal and corporate (national) faith; it begins and ends with the classic invitation to give thanks to the Lord; it introduces the word ‘Hosanna’ (v25: ‘Save, we pray’, as in Matthew 21:15); it is interwoven with responsive, liturgical and processional patterns; above all it announces the stone rejected by the builders which becomes the key to the whole building. V22 is quoted by Jesus and his apostles (Matthew 21:42; Acts 4:11 etc) as the clearest of all pointers to himself in the book of Psalms. No other is quoted more in the NT; cf notes to 22, 69, 110. Isaac Watts’ messianic interpretation is the classic This is the day the Lord has made (232), and many other hymns draw freely on this Scripture; see 233 and 234, and Martin Leckebusch’s fuller approach (from 2001) built on the phrase ‘unfailing love’ at its beginning and end. Graham Harrison’s version by contrast adopts ‘thee/thou’ mode for his stz 3. This was the first Psalm paraphrased by Christopher Idle from his initial quota for Psalm Praise, but partly for that reason his 1970 version, published there in 1973, later seemed inadequate. So he wrote this second text at Limehouse in 1980, published in Light upon the River (1998). The Psalm is a natural choice for the pre-Easter season. The author had in mind Michael Saward’s melody composed for the latter’s I thank you, LORD, with all my heart, and later named SOMERSET (for Psalm 111 in PsP). He was equally happy to have Georges Bizet’s ROMA introduced to him, used here for the first time in a hymn book. It comes from his symphonic suite Roma, written with various revisions 1860–71. The prestigious ‘Prix de Rome’ had allowed Bizet to study in that city for 3 years.

b Bromley, Kent 1938. Eltham Coll, St Peter’s Coll Oxford (BA, English), Clifton Theol Coll Bristol; ordained in 1965 to a Barrow-in-Furness curacy. He spent 30 years in CofE parish ministry, some in rural Suffolk, mainly in inner London (Peckham, Poplar and Limehouse). Author of over 300 hymn texts, mainly Scripture based, collected in Light upon the River (1998) and Walking by the River (2008), Trees along the River (2018), and now appearing in some 300 books and other publications; see also the dedication of EP1 (p3) to his late wife Marjorie. He served on 5 editorial groups from Psalm Praise (1973) to Praise!; his writing includes ‘Grove’ booklets Hymns in Today’s Language (1982) and Real Hymns, Real Hymn Books (2000), and The Word we preach, the words we sing (Reform, 1998). He edited the quarterly News of Hymnody for 10 years, and briefly the Bulletin of the Hymn Society, on whose committee he served at various times between 1984 and 2006; and addressed British and American Hymn Socs. Until 1996 he often exchanged draft texts with Michael Perry (qv) for mutual criticism and encouragement. From 1995 he was engaged in educational work and writing from home in Peckham, SE London, until retirement in 2003; following his return to Bromley after a gap of 40 years, he has attended Holy Trinity Ch Bromley Common and Hayes Lane Baptist Ch. Owing much to the Proclamation Trust, he also belongs to the Anglican societies Crosslinks and Reform, together with CND and the Christian pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation. A former governor of 4 primary schools, he has also written songs for school assemblies set to familiar tunes, and (in 2004) Grandpa’s Amazing Poems and Awful Pictures. His bungalow is smoke-free, alcohol-free, car-free, gun-free and TV-free. Nos.13, 18, 21, 23A, 24B, 27B, 28, 31, 35, 36, 37, 48, 50, 68, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 85, 89, 92, 95, 102, 108, 109, 114, 118, 119A, 121A, 125, 128, 131, 145B, 157, 176, 177, 193*, 313*, 333, 339, 388, 392, 420, 428, 450, 451, 463, 478, 506, 514, 537, 548, 551, 572, 594, 597, 620, 621, 622, 636, 668, 669, 693, 747, 763, 819, 914, 917, 920, 945, 954, 956, 968, 976, 1003, 1012, 1084, 1098, 1138, 1151, 1158, 1159, 1178, 1179, 1181, 1201, 1203, 1204, 1205, 1209, 1210, 1211, 1212, 1221, 1227, 1236, 1237, 1244, 1247, 5017, 5018, 5019, 5020.