Why, mighty hero, must you boast

Doeg the Edomite is one of Scripture’s less attractive characters (1 Samuel 22); if the story reflected in the Psalm’s title is recalled, the focus of the Psalm is immediately sharpened. The ‘mighty hero’ is ironical; the ‘razor-sharp’ tongue is that of a spy and informer. ‘The great end which God has in view, when he prostrates the pride of the ungodly, is the comfort of his own people’—Calvin, on this Psalm. David Preston’s version, first published here, was drafted for this book in Oct 1996 and completed in May 1998. 1.3–4 reflects the AV/NKJV/ESV reading of v1a (different in RSV/NIV); DGP also notes the ‘remarkable line-for-line correspondence between stzs 1 and 3, unplanned by the versifier’. Annabeth Gay’s tune SHEPHERDS’ PIPES was composed in 1952, published in The Pilgrim Hymnal in 1958, and introduced to Britain in Rejoice and Sing (1991), set to very different words. The Psalter Hymnal of the Christian Reformed Church in N America (1987) sets this tune to the version of Ps 58 also used in Praise!—see below. This is its first setting to these words, which have a similar theme.

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*.