Let all the righteous to the Lord

Like nos. 1 and 10 (but no more until 71), this Psalm is given no title; Kidner calls it ‘praise to God for what he is and does’ and so ‘the purest form of a hymn’. It seems to use Psalm 32 as a springboard. David Preston has gone to the New Version of the Psalms of David, Fitted to the Tunes used in Churches (1696) by Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady, adopted by many churches as the standard Psalter for 2 centuries, and used it as a starting-point for today’s congregations. No single line survives intact; 7 stzs become 5, and with mixed feelings we lose ‘Let harps and psalteries and lutes/ in joyful concert meet;/ and new-made songs of loud applause/ the harmony complete.’ The first revision dates from the early 1990s, followed by further work 1997–98. Another contemporary version is Paul Wigmore’s Bring songs of joy to God the Lord. The music SERAPH (=EVANGEL) while a favourite in some traditions, has been passed over by most recent editors. This early 19th-c German tune, used twice in CH, seems better suited to the present text than to others it has been paired with, though as BETHLEHEM it has been used for 379 and labelled simply ‘Old Carol’. It is the work of Gottfried Wilhelm Fink of Leipzig in E Germany.

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*.