Lord, hear my plea, my innocence declare

Completing an unplanned trio of Preston versions, this one was written c1997–99 specifically for the present book. It is significant that (as Coverdale also made clear) the ‘heartless sinners … my foes’ do have ‘this world’s joys’; one modern ‘Liturgical Psalter’ chooses to rewrite history (and experience) and ‘reserve all the worldly benefits to the righteous’—in Donald Davie’s phrase. The kind of people described in 3.1–2 are (hypothetically) referred to in 1 Cor 15:19. Coggan heads the Psalm ‘Not boasting, but groaning’. Contexts in David’s life are not hard to guess; 1 Samuel 23:25ff describes one of them. David Mowbray has also written Lord of all my footsteps from this Psalm, while Anne Steele draws richly from it in My God, the visits of thy face afford superior joy. In a metre for which it is not easy to find many strong tunes, ANIRTS proved most suitable. Robert Gower composed it c1986 at Radley College to meet ‘the need for a more flowing tune to Eternal Ruler of the ceaseless round.’ It was first sung there, and printed in the Radley College Supplement (1987). The tune name is not an anagram, but was originally ANIRTSELAP ‘after our beloved springer spaniel Palestrina’.

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*.