How long will you forget me, Lord

Born from the kind of experience reflected in 1 Samuel 27:1, the original seems to have a particular enemy in view, but this cry of the heart soon came into more general use. The text was written at Limehouse, E London, by the then rector Christopher Idle in Nov 1977, in his search for a congregational version of this desperate, questioning but trusting Psalm, and first published in Church Family Worship, 1986. By that time it had been considerably revised, and stz 4 was further rewritten by request for Praise! Michael Saward (Forgotten for eternity) and Barbara Woollett (How long, O Lord, will you forget) also have versions in print. in 1982 Marie J Post used the same 1st line for text in 868686, for the Canadian Psalter Hymnal. The Psalm can be simply summed up as ‘Someone’s crying, Lord; someone’s praying, Lord; someone’s singing, Lord!’ and at a time of rising unemployment in the UK, John Benton expounded it as a ‘Psalm for the redundant?’ (Evangelicals Now. Oct 2009) Originally set to ST HUGH, it was next paired with BANGOR, but DUNFERMLINE was the final choice here. With variant spellings, this was one of 12 ‘common tunes’ (not assigned to a particular Psalm) published in Edinburgh in 1615, then by Ravenscroft in England in 1621. It has been tentatively attributed to John Angus of the ‘Abbacie of Dunfermling’ (see Songs of the People of God p149). When used with texts such as Lord, I have made your word my choice (557), it is both usual and useful to make the first note of each line a minim, or gathering note; but here this would not be so helpful.

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.