Zion, founded on the mountain

Authors:
Themes:
Scriptures:
  • Psalms 46:4-5
  • Psalms 48:1-2
  • Psalms 78:68
  • Psalms 87:3
  • Isaiah 28:16
  • Jeremiah 17:13
  • Jeremiah 2:13
  • John 4:10-14
  • John 7:37-38
  • Revelation 22:17
Book Number:
  • 87

Zion, founded on the mountain,
God, your maker loves you well;
he has chosen you as precious,
he delights in you to dwell;
God’s own city,
who can all your glory tell?

2. Glorious things of you are spoken,
Zion, city of our God:
people of all tribes and nations
have one birthplace to record:
‘Born in Zion’-
this is written by the Lord!

3. When the Lord includes all nations
far and near, they shall belong.
This their home, their strength, their future;
God most High will keep them strong;
living water-
God himself-shall be their song.

© In this version Praise Trust
The Psalter 1912, ALT

The Church - Character and Privileges

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Tunes

  • Kingley Vale
    Kingley Vale
    Metre:
    • 87 87 47
    Composer:
    • Allen, Hugh Percy
  • Llwynbedw
    Llwynbedw
    Metre:
    • 87 87 87
    Composer:
    • Rees, John Thomas

The story behind the hymn

Like its predecessor, this much shorter Psalm has by a single phrase given us a standard hymn; in this case the earlier, richer, and better known Glorious things of thee are spoken—see 570. But Newton was not attempting to paraphrase the Psalm; no easy task in view of its ‘shorthand’ nature. For all the saints is also concerned with the same vision of the holy city of God. God himself remains central to the Psalm; Kidner calls its phrases enigmatic and staccato, while Weiser dubs them daring and abrupt, and ‘the Psalm begins abruptly’ says Spurgeon. Doddridge uses it to launch a hymn ‘On opening a new Place of Worship’. By its bold opening, the version considerably adapted here from the Psalter of 1912 (via the Canadian Psalter Hymnal) virtually ensures for it the final slot in the index. It takes the opening of stz 2 not so much from John Newton as from the original ‘Sons of Korah’ named in the title. David Mowbray provides another fresh approach in his For all your boundless gifts (1990). Hugh Allen’s tune KINGLEY VALE first appeared in the 1910 Winchester College hymn book, with two classic ‘school assembly’ hymns of that time. The BBC Hymn Book of 1951 set it to Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour; for Psalm 87 too it suitably expresses the grandeur, strength and beauty of its theme. It has also been used with other words; its name is that of a favourite walk below the Downs just N of Chichester, where as a young man the composer was assistant organist at the cathedral.

A look at the author

The Psalter, 1912

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.