Give to the Lord wholehearted praise

‘Hallelujah! Praise the LORD!’ As if by way of foretaste of the great outburst of praise which completes the whole book of Psalms (146–150), here are 3 which begin with ‘Hallelujah’. This and the next are also linked in being alphabetical (cf 25 and 34, for example); though fewer English versions have attempted this device with these two, with the familiar exception of Gordon Jackson’s non-metrical texts from 1993. Praise! follows the Haywards Heath 1995 Collection Praises for the King of Kings in using the 1912 Psalter as its basis for 111, though with further changes; the first 4 lines and the last two are retained. Stz 7 incorporates the text familiar from Job 28, Proverbs 1 and Ecclesiastes 12: ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’. This heart of the wisdom writings contributes to the Psalm’s climax of praise; in any version we cannot miss the repeated ‘for ever’ and ‘for evermore’. A recent version by Emma Turl is Praise the LORD! My heart, extol him, in the rare metre 8887 887. Christopher Willing’s tune ALSTONE (used again at 642) has usually been associated with children’s hymns. It appeared in the 1868 Appendix of the original A&M, set to Mrs Alexander’s We are but little children weak. Later, as the hymn dropped from favour, it partnered It is a thing most wonderful. Alstone is the name of a village in Gloucs and one in N Somerset.

A notable landmark in the line of Scottish metrical Psalters beginning with the classic 1650 collection, which remained unchallenged for nearly a century until revisions began in 1745; the 1912 book was the last significant one of its kind before Sing Psalms qv. Nos.46A, 87, 93, 94, 111, 119C, 119F, 135, 140.