With all my heart I seek

David Mowbray’s very different approach is one of the shortest possible summaries of the Psalm, while also echoing particular vv (24, 77, 174 etc) and perhaps suggesting Jer 29:13. It was first published in 1990 in Psalms for Today; the author was at that time vicar of All Saints’ church, Hertford. A century and a half earlier, another CofE vicar wrote: ‘So practical is Christian privilege, that longing for salvation will always expand itself in habitual delight in the law’ (Charles Bridges on v174). For other general summaries of the Psalm or extracts from it, see 557 and 560, Graham Deans’ approach to vv1–8 in CH 2004 (see 117, note) and Martin Leckebusch’s 2001 text in 3 substantial stzs beginning ‘Here is the route … Here is the spring … Here is the lamp …’ BEWELEY was composed by Cyril Taylor for Mary Tearle’s baptismal hymn Defend, O Lord, and keep, with which it appeared in the 1951 BBC Hymn Book. The tune was named after the godson of the composer; it is also used here for 521. The alternative IBSTONE (see 278) was the tune with which David Mowbray’s words were first published

b Wallington, Surrey 1938. Dulwich Coll; Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge (MA); Clifton Theological Coll, Bristol (BD). Ordained (CofE) 1963, he served parishes in Northampton (as curate), Watford (lecturer), Broxbourne (Herts, as incumbent), Hertford and (from 1991) Darley Abbey, Derby, until retirement to Lincoln in 2004. His hymnwriting began in 1978 while on a month’s residential clergy conference at Windsor Castle, where 2 of his texts were immediately sung in St George’s Chapel. This was followed by ‘a great burst of writing’ for some 18 months. His own first words-only collections for parish and school were Kingdom Come, Kingdom Everlasting and Kingdom Within (1978–84), mainly recommending standard hymn tunes, and some 50 of these texts are now formally published, from Partners in Praise (1979) onwards. Several are in Jubilate books (6 in Come Rejoice!, 1989, 15 in Sing Glory, 1999, 5 in Carol Praise, 2006), and publications from Stainer and Bell; Come to us, creative Spirit (1979) remains his most popular, while First of the week and finest day is a rare 20thc text on a once much-loved theme (see also J Ellerton, note). Come Celebrate: contemporary hymns (2009) includes his share of 15 texts. ‘The usual flashpoint for writing is the combination of an idea plus a tune’—DM. He was a member of the words group for Sing Glory, and is probably the most outstanding contemporary hymnwriter not yet (by 2011) to have a collected volume of his texts. Nos.119B, 469, 584, 921, 1050, 1226