Help us, O Lord, the righteous all have vanished

‘This Psalm struck me as being little-known, and yet immensely relevant in the post-modern world’, writes Andrew King. An earlier version of his paraphrase appeared in Praises for the King of Kings (itself a borrowed title as his Preface explains) which he edited from Haywards Heath in 1994. It was no.12 there too, as the book began like this one with Psalm versions retaining their biblical numbers. It was used by 9 evangelical and baptist churches and formed one of the contributing streams of texts and ideas for Praise! The editor/author observed in 2001: ‘Today words have no meaning, truth is banished, and the idea of God as Lord is utterly despised. The result of such a rejection is of course greater oppression of the weak and poor— no-one ever lies or boasts to help others. But the assurance that God’s words are true, and that he will act according to his word, gives hope in an increasingly anarchic world.’ He explained that ‘The Psalm laid hold of me; I wrote the paraphrase and then preached on the text’. His 1st and 3rd stzs were emended by agreement. Coggan calls the Psalm ‘A bad day’ and like others, who use the stronger language of ‘hypocrisy, dissimulation and untrustworthiness’, points to the power of words, human (for ill, stzs 1–2) and divine (for good, stz 3). Among other contemporary texts, Keith Landis has written The promises of God are pure. C H H (Hubert) Parry’s tune INTERCESSOR was composed for the hymn O word of pity, for our pardon pleading (the last stz of which begins ‘O Intercessor, who art ever living’), and was first published in the 1904 A&M. It has subsequently been used with several other texts. Mendelssohn’s BERLIN was originally recommended in PKK, and is found in CH and GH.

b Wroughton nr Swindon, Wilts 1961. Raised in the Gospel Standard Strict Baptist tradition in a family circle familiar with its classic hymns; converted at Caterham Baptist Ch in 1971, where he grew to love a fuller range of hymnody. Studied at Dulwich Coll, Sussex Univ (BSc Biology 1982). After working as a sausage salesman with the Walls Meat Company and as a food technologist with Hygrade Foods in Peckham, he assisted the Minister at Grove Chapel, Camberwell, while studying at the London Theological Seminary 1986–88. Pastor/teacher at Haywards Heath Evangelical Free Church in Sussex 1988–2000; where he edited (with others) the words-only hymnal Praises for the King of Kings (see no.12, note) for which he contributed several texts. Enjoyed writing from his youth up, and wrote some 35 texts at Haywards Heath after his first, a version of Ps 2 written at Camberwell soon after his marriage to Cora. For a time he was a member of the modern songs team for Praise! From 2000 he worked in Brazil as a Bible teacher and preacher with UFM Worldwide (the Unevangelised Fields Mission), with a roving commission to train, teach and encourage others in biblical exposition, based on his home in Florianópolis. He returned to England in 2008 and currently (2011) works as a kitchen sales consultant, also running a photography business. His texts have also been published in Australia and New Zealand, with one each in Sing Glory (1999) and the 2004 CH. Nos.12, 306, 598, 631, 686, 795*, 912, 923.