O sing a new song

We have met the ‘new song’ in Ps 33 and will do so again in 98. Here in the 96th it features in an outburst of praise to God as saviour (as in 95), king (as 93) and judge (as 94). In 1 Chron 16 this Psalm is substantially incorporated into the celebrations when the ark of the covenant arrives in Jerusalem. In the older English Bible translations, we find the phrase ‘the beauty of holiness’ which whatever its original meaning has become part of our heritage of praise through Heber’s hymn among others, O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness (no.194). T Spalding (1805-87) provided the lyrical Sing to the Lord new songs of praise (as in The Christian Hymnary of the Churches of Christ, 1938), while a Michael Perry tour-de-force is his Sing to the Lord with a song of profound delight, boldly set to Schubert’s Marche Militaire in D. As with 98, there is an early hint of Rom 8:18ff in the Psalm’s forwardlooking summons to all creation. David Preston has captured the mood by adopting the metre of O worship the king; his version (c1984) appears in BP (1986), Sing Glory (1999) and CH (2004). It is unchanged except for capitals and punctuation. Having chosen his rhythm and suggested HOUGHTON as a tune, the author resolved later that he would compose his own music to match, so GRAZELEY (c1994) is first published here. At the time of writing text and tune he was living at Three Mile Cross near Grazeley, a village to the S of Reading. This Psalm was sung at the celebration launch of the book in central London in May 2000.

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*.