The whole earth is the Lord's

Here are God’s sovereignty, holiness and victory, in a dramatic Psalm which moves ‘as if in procession with the King of Glory from the provinces of his realm to “the central height��? and the city at the summit’ (Kidner). Since the whole earth is his, he has the right of entry through any ‘gates’ in the world. Montgomery’s Lift up your heads, ye gates of brass expands its imagery to make a full-scale Christian hymn, while 820 in the present book uses some of its early stzs, and 845 its later ones. Other texts in CH (249, 256) also paraphrase the Psalm’s final section, which in 1741 provided the words of a memorable chorus in Handel’s Messiah, ‘Lift up your heads, O ye gates’. David Preston’s 1989 text, slightly revised from its Carey Praise version, characteristically remains close to the text of Scripture. Ps 22 -24 can be seen as a further group (Saviour, Shepherd, Sovereign) but probably with hindsight rather than editorial intention. The quotation of the opening line of this one (twice over, according to some mss) may still surprise unwary readers of 1 Cor 10:23ff. Charles Vincent’s tune, originally named ST ISHMAEL, was first published in the 3rd edn (1890) of the Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer of which he was joint Music Editor. It was set there to a much-changed version of Isaac Watts’ O bless the LORD, my soul (Psalm 103), so it is retained here as a Psalm tune. Ishmael (Gen 16 and 21; Gal 4) is not normally listed among ‘saints’, but the 6th-cent Welsh bishop Ismael (the spelling varies) was the son of a prince and a disciple and successor of (St) David. He is commemorated by several church dedications in Pembrokeshire, and in ‘St Ishmael’s’, a village a few miles W of Milford Haven. The 1933 Methodist book, which prints the tune twice, drops the ‘St’ from its name, as here, though both books are amply supplied with other ‘saints’ in their lists.

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*.