Sing praise to the Lord God Almighty

Another contribution from The Psalter of 1912 is chosen, with further emendations to those made in Praises for the King of Kings (1994), to represent a Psalm which echoes the 115th and several others. Kidner calls it ‘An Anthology of Praise’, pointing out that every verse may be paralleled elsewhere in Scripture. But this ‘mosaic of fragments’ has its own ‘vigour of rhythm and spirit’ (Kirkpatrick) which the paraphrase well conveys. It also carries its own memorable phrase from both Coverdale and the 1611 (AV) Bible: ‘Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he …’ (v6; cf stz 2 of this version). The anonymous tune CRUGYBAR, says Cliff Knight, ‘will be found in all Welsh hymn books and … is firmly wedded to David Charles’ words’; in Lewis Edwards’ version these are From heavenly Jerusalem’s towers; in Jane Owen’s, The source of my joy and my rapture. He adds that as this is often sung at funerals, people have shied away from it for other occasions; though the present book follows CH in using it also for Vernon Higham’s 908. It was first published in Moliant Seion edited by J Cledan Williams of New Tredegar in 1883, which added a note linking it with Nancy (Crugybar) Jones, 1760–1833, who led the singing in times of revival. But according to Alan Luff the link is ‘minimal’, and the tune has been traced to earlier sources (pre-1820) in the manuscripts of John Jenkins. Some see it as an old tripletime tune whose original rhythm has been modified by slow singing. It has had other names, but the present one is that of a village near Cynwyl Gaeo in Dyfed (Carmarthenshire).

A notable landmark in the line of Scottish metrical Psalters beginning with the classic 1650 collection, which remained unchallenged for nearly a century until revisions began in 1745; the 1912 book was the last significant one of its kind before Sing Psalms qv. Nos.46A, 87, 93, 94, 111, 119C, 119F, 135, 140.