I exalt you, Lord eternal

Authors:
Themes:
Scriptures:
  • Psalms 103:9
  • Psalms 115:17
  • Psalms 126:5-6
  • Psalms 30
  • Psalms 6:5
  • Psalms 88:10-12
Book Number:
  • 30A

I exalt you, Lord eternal,
from the depths you raised my soul;
all my enemies were silent,
all their gloating tongues were still.
Lord, I called on you to help me,
and you healed me in my need;
Lord, you brought me back from darkness,
from the pit my soul was freed.

2. Praise the Lord, his faithful people,
let us praise his holy name,
for his anger lasts a moment
but his grace remains the same.
Though I pass the night in weeping,
when the darkness flees away,
then rejoicing fills the morning,
lasting joy will greet the day.

3. In the times of peace and blessing,
when my life felt safe and sure,
I had said, ‘Now none can shake me,
on God’s rock I stand secure.’
Then your face was hidden from me,
and my spirit was dismayed,
crying out to you for mercy:
‘Hear, O Lord! come to my aid.’

4. ‘What is gained by my destruction
in the pit of loneliness?
Will the dust sing praises to you?
Will it show your faithfulness?
Quickly come for my salvation,
show your mercy, meet my need,
hear my prayer, O Lord, and answer,
for your help, O Lord, I plead.’

5. Then you turned my tears to dancing
took my cloak of grief away,
and you filled my heart with gladness,
clothed my soul with radiant joy.
Let my heart no more keep silent!
Let my lips sing songs of praise!
You, O Lord my God, I’ll worship,
thanking you through all my days.

© Author
Jim Sayers

The Christian Life - Humbling and Restoration

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Tune

The story behind the hymn

Coggan calls it ‘Blue skies’; Kidner, ‘Mourning into dancing’. Isaac Watts’ paraphrase (PHRW 30i) boldly begins, ‘I will extol thee, LORD on high, at whose command diseases fly …’, while James Seddon’s I worship you, O Lord appeared in Psalm Praise and later in CH2004. The original Psalm-title has been variously interpreted. However we read it, here is another Psalm where contrasting versions are offered. Jim Sayers’ text was his first, written on holiday in Italy in 1994. ‘After Helen and I had lost our first baby through miscarriage, Psalm 30 was used by God to rekindle our prayers together; it came to life while we were staying at the beautiful Monte San Vigilio hotel, and was written on the back of a paper bag (no other paper to hand) while travelling to see Aida performed in Verona. This Psalm version stands as my heart’s tribute to the little life we never knew’. Among later modifications were changes from ‘I exalt the LORD eternal’ to ‘I exalt you …’ and (3.4) from ‘God has made my mountain sure’. The tune is identified as LOVE DIVINE (ZUNDEL) to distinguish it from Stainer’s slightly later but better known tune (745). It was composed in 1870 by the organist at the Brooklyn Church, New York, where Henry Ward Beecher was the Minister, and published that year in Christian Heart Songs: A Collection of Solos, Quartettes and Choruses of All Meters. In Britain it was first choice for Wesley’s Love divine in the 1933 Methodist Hymn Book, but Methodists have not persevered with it. It retains its popularity in America, where it is known simply as ZUNDEL or even BEECHER (see Biographical notes on J Zundel in Vol 2).

A look at the author

Sayers, James (Jim) David

b Epsom, Surrey 1966. Ashcombe Sch Dorking, Univ Coll of Wales, Aberystwyth (LL.B) and Edinburgh Theological Seminary (DipTh, M.Th). After two and a half years as assistant to Brian Edwards at Hook Evangelical Ch (FIEC), Surbiton, he became Pastor of Kesgrave Grace Baptist Ch, Ipswich, Suffolk, from 1995. Then in 2009 he moved to Abingdon to become Communications Director of Grace Baptist Mission. In 2020 he moved to Didcot to lead a church-plant, Grace Church Didcot. He chaired the team selecting versions of the 150 Psalms for Praise! He became a trustee of Praise Trust in 2016, and chairman in 2018.

He has 10 published texts, as here, of which the first he wrote (1994) was based on Ps 30. Nos.2B, 30A, 39, 59, 69A, 71, 86, 719, 1013, 1249. He also wrote the revised version of O Holy Night CP47