Lord, have mercy: in your goodness

This best-known and most searching of the penitential Psalms (see 6, note), has a title firmly locating its origins in the events of 2 Sam 11-12—possibly at the precise moment of ch12 v20. It requires ‘a conscience that is touch-sensitive to sin’ (Brian Edwards), and vv16–17 (in stz 5 of this paraphrase) clearly recall the warning to King Saul, David’s predecessor, at 1 Sam 15:22. John Stott outlines from it the need, expression and results of God’s mercy. The Psalm is well quarried for quotation in classic hymns (including 679, 682 and 705), prayers and confessions. It has no trace of self-justification (such as ‘remember my good deeds’) nor of any physical affliction (unlike 32); I am the one responsible, God is the one offended. But few paraphrases follow the lows and highs of the scriptural text faithfully to the end, as David Preston has done here (in Summer 1985) with a final foretaste of the ‘living sacrifice’ of Rom 12:1. The text is unchanged since its first appearance in BP. Those who are serious about God are also serious about sin; by way of counterpoint Weiser says ‘The true extent of grace is experienced only where the true dimensions of sin are grasped’. Apart from one stz in PHRW, CH and GH are almost alone in including Isaac Watts’ Show pity, Lord; O Lord, forgive. Without paraphrasing, Charles Wesley draws on much of the Psalm in O for a heart to praise my God (812), though by overexuberance he loses some of the power of Coverdale’s version. Anne Steele deals with the ‘sacrificial’ vv18-19 by saying ‘If sacrifice would please my God…’. It is ‘not easy to find a suitable tune’—DGP. Two older tunes were originally printed with these words; since then the author has recommended CEFN MAWR (77) but also composed his own, named BLAENAVON after the former mining town in S Wales. The name was suggested by Selwyn Morgan of Barry, recalling the powerful ministry there of Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899–1981) on one notable occasion. LLAN BAGLAN (686) is a named alternative; another option is Roberts’ IN MEMORIAM (50).

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*.