In anguish to the Lord I cry

‘I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war’—v7; AV, NKJV. Many believers have felt the force of the final lines of this terse appeal to God by one who ‘sojourns in Meshech and dwells among the tents of Kedar’. Since these indicate enemies from the far N and SE respectively, they may indicate a whole gamut of opposition. As Dickson says, ‘It is not sufficient to live innocently with the wicked, but duty requireth that we should labour to mitigate the fury of adversaries.’ The better news is that this is the 1st of 15 successive ‘Songs of Ascents’ (‘Degrees’ in older versions) which accompany the singers up to the security and delight of Jerusalem. John Newton’s hymn based on vv5–7 comes in the ‘Olney’ Bk 1 (cf note at 119F), What a mournful life is mine; he goes on, ‘Tho’ constrained to dwell a while/ where the wicked strive and brawl;/ let them frown, so he but smile,/ heav’n will make amends for all’. David Preston wrote his version, as succinct as its source, for Carey Praise (Carey Baptist Church, Reading, 1989) where it first appeared in print. For the tune BURFORD the author has gone to Chetham’s A Book of Psalmody, 1718 (via ‘quite possibly the 1929 Scots Psalter’—DGP), which has a much longer title and which sets it to a version of Psalm 42. In the same year a similar book of tunes put it with Psalm 30. Neither book names the tune or its composer, and its now accepted name (that of the small town between Cheltenham and Oxford) first appeared in 1730.

b London 1939. d 2020. Archbishop Tenison’s Grammar School, Kennington, London; Keble College Oxford (MA Mod Langs.) He worked as a French Teacher, including 11 years at Ahmadu Bello Univ, Nigeria, and gained a PhD on the French Christian poet Pierre Emmanuel (1916 84). A member of Carey Baptist Ch, Reading, for many years, he later moved to Alweston, nr Sherborne, Dorset. He compiled The Book of Praises (Carey Publications, Liverpool) in 1987, with versions of 71 Psalms; these include modified texts of Watts and a few other classic paraphrasers, but most are by contemporary writers including himself. 60 of his metrical Psalm versions are so far published, including one each in Sing Glory (2000), the Scottish Church Hymnary 4th Edn (2005) and Sing Praise (2010), and 3 in the 2004 edn of CH; also 10 tunes. His writing and composing has taken place in Leicester, Reading, Nigeria and his present home; he was a member of the editorial board throughout the preparation of Praise! and had a major share in the choice of music for the Psalm texts (1-150). His convictions about the Psalms, as expressed in the Introduction to BP, are that ‘There is nothing to compare with their blend of the subjective and the objective, the inner life and practical goodness, the knowledge of one’s own rebellious heart and the knowledge of God…Today’s general neglect of congregational Psalm singing is a symptom of the spiritual malaise of our churches. When the preaching of the Gospel has prospered, bringing into being churches vibrant with spiritual life, men and women have taken great delight in praising their Maker and Redeemer through these scriptural hymns’. 15 of his own, self-selected, feature as his share of ‘contemporary hymns’ in the 2009 Come Celebrate; he has also served as a meticulous proof-reader. Nos.1, 2A, 5*, 6, 7, 11, 15, 16, 17, 19A, 24A, 27A, 30B, 32*, 33*, 38, 40, 42, 43, 47, 51*, 52, 55, 57*, 64, 66, 74, 76, 77, 84, 90, 91A, 96*, 97, 99, 100B, 101, 114*, 120, 126, 132, 139, 142*, 143, 145A, 147*, 824*, 830*, 963*.