I'll praise the Lord, my rock

Authors:
Themes:
Scriptures:
  • Job 7:17
  • Job 7:7
  • Psalms 127:3-5
  • Psalms 128:3
  • Psalms 144:2
  • Psalms 149:1
  • Psalms 18:1
  • Psalms 33:12
  • Psalms 33:3
  • Psalms 65:11-13
  • Psalms 84
  • Psalms 96:1-2
  • Psalms 98:1
  • Proverbs 3:10
  • Isaiah 24:11
  • Habakkuk 3:2
  • Zechariah 8:4-5
  • James 4:14
Book Number:
  • 144

I’ll praise the Lord, my rock,
who trains my hands for war;
who is my loving God and shield,
and my deliverer.
Yet we are weak, and fail,
no stronger than a breath;
Lord, what is man, so small, so frail,
and shadowed deep by death?

2. Now part your heavens, O Lord,
come down and show your might;
unveil the latent power of God
in nature’s storm and light.
Descend in this dark hour
to scatter all deceit.
Revive your work! Reveal your power,
and lying schemes defeat.

3. And, while we wait on God
for his restoring grace,
the new song planted in our soul
awakes to his glad praise.
You are the King of kings,
our strong security;
deliver us from those who lie,
and set your servant free!

4. Then mercy great shall flow,
our children’s faith increase;
our sheep and cattle multiply,
our harvests grow in peace.
No cries shall haunt our streets,
no threats of fire or sword-
how blessed the land that knows such rest,
whose people know the Lord!

© Author
Peter Ninnis

Psalms

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Tune

  • Gwndwngwyn
    Gwndwngwyn
    Metre:
    • SMD (Short Metre Double: 66 86 D)
    Composer:
    • Thomas, John

The story behind the hymn

Here is a Psalm now better known for its end than its beginning, though the opening words gave rise to a suggested reminder of David’s encounter with Goliath. The question concluding stz 1 repeats that of 8, in a different context. The blessings of God for household, countryside, city and nation are much prized in every generation, and all these are included in Peter Ninnis’s text. This was requested by the Psalms team for Praise! and is first published here. Surprisingly, 5 recent Psalm collections omit this one altogether; Spurgeon’s choice for Our Own Hymn Book was John Beaumont’s effective mini-version I’ll bless my Saviour God (12 SM lines only).

The tune GWNDWNGWYN by John Thomas is notable not only for its name but for its suitability to these words, particularly in the climaxes in lines 1 and 7.

A look at the author

Ninnis, Peter James

b Croydon, Surrey 1948. He was raised in ‘a chapel-going but not overtly Christian’ family. Trinity Sch of John Whitgift, Croydon; followed by training for the horticultural industry (Advanced Nat Cert in horticulture). Converted in a small Gospel Standard chapel at Grove, Oxfordshire, he then trained for Christian ministry at the S Wales Bible Coll, and from 1983 served full-time in a Reformed Baptist Ch in Watford, Herts. In 1996 he moved to the Grace Baptist Ch at Basildon, Essex, and after a short break to Truro Evangelical Ch, Cornwall (FIEC), in 2001. His hymnwriting began in 1988 with no.543 and ‘has continued in gentle fashion ever since’—PJN. He has texts and tunes in print, all for the first time in Praise!; others are arriving. Nos.144, 149, 186, 188, 543, 1143, 1198. 1143*, 1198*