Friday, May 26, 2006

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, Part II

Well it seems that Brian beat me to the punch and began discussion on this topic before I could get a post written. (Punk!)

In my research (a/k/a digging through my hymnal collection) I ran across this version in a Reformed hymnal from 1941-1960.

1. Praise ye the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation! O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation. All ye who hear, Now to His temple draw near; join me in glad adoration!

2. Praise ye the Lord, who o'er all things so wondrously reigneth, shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth! Hast thou not seen How thy desires e'er have been Granted in what He ordaineth?

3. Praise ye the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him! All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him! Let the Amen sound from His people again: gladly for aye we adore Him. Amen.

NOW FOR THE KICKER.

I remembered The Cyber Hymnal, and decided to see what they have in the way of texts. They archive the "real deal"; none of these nambypamby text alterations. It appears there are a lot more than four verses. (I've also decided to add Cyber Hymnal to our links).

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, Who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, Who hath fearfully, wondrously, made thee;
Health hath vouchsafed and, when heedlessly falling, hath stayed thee.
What need or grief ever hath failed of relief?
Wings of His mercy did shade thee.

Praise to the Lord, Who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord, Who, when tempests their warfare are waging,
Who, when the elements madly around thee are raging,
Biddeth them cease, turneth their fury to peace,
Whirlwinds and waters assuaging.

Praise to the Lord, Who, when darkness of sin is abounding,
Who, when the godless do triumph, all virtue confounding,
Sheddeth His light, chaseth the horrors of night,
Saints with His mercy surrounding.

Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.


Words: Jo­ach­im Ne­an­der, in A und Ω Glaub- und Lieb­es­ü­bung (Stras­lund: 1680); trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by Cath­er­ine Wink­worth, 1863.

Music: LOBE DEN HERREN, An­der Theil des Er­neu­er­ten Ge­sang­buch, se­cond edi­tion (Bre­men, Ger­ma­ny: 1665); har­mo­ny by Wil­liam S. Ben­nett, 1864.

From the CyberHymnal. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

3 comments:

Brian Michael Page said...

Now THAT would be perfect for those Pontifical Masses with long processions, or even the average parish church whose Confirmation class has about 100 candidates in the procession (and you still have the ministers, K of C, and the Bishop), and whose music director either doesn't know how to (or won't for fear that the people have nothing to do for a whole minute) play any kind of instrumental improv on the organ.

Excellent research here, Nick. Now, I TRIPLE DOG DARE GIA, OCP, WLP, LitPress, IgPress, and any other Catholic press to print this complete text in their next edition, along with completed versions of many other standard hymnody. There might just be a whole lot of singing going on. ;)

Peace,
BMP

Brian Michael Page said...

Oh, and here's a part of the reason for my triple dog dare - mentions of SIN and WARFARE, and a sense of protection from some furious natural disasters.

And those second and third verses... why have good solid traditional verses like that when you have Beagle's Things? That would be too good for the human tongue, don-cha know.
(snark snark)

This is what makes "team blogging" fun. (LOL)

BMP

Kathleen Pluth said...

If I were an editor I would definitely skip the "vouchsafed" verse.