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Rebuke us, Father, but in love:
Let all thy chastenings mercies prove;
With every stroke thy grace impart,
And let them move, not break, the heart.
Thy hand is heavy, but our sin
Is heavier still, our souls within;
It whelms, it sinks us to the grave:
Arise, Redeemer, help and save!
Our hearts are open, Lord, to thee;
Our inmost wish thine eye can see:
Thou know’st our dangers, foes, and snares
And will not scorn our humble prayers.
In Thee we hope, on thee we rest;
O give us what thou seest the best!
Our guide through every trial past,
O lead us safely home at last!
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On God I've called in trouble's hour,
And never called in vain.
Again afflictions round me lower;
Lord, hear and help again.
A stranger's lot, a pilgrim's fare
Is all I meet below;
In every sweet I find a snare,
In every smile a foe.
Ah, woe is me, that I must roam
So long this land of tears!
When shall my spirit reach her home.
Above all foes and fears?
There is a peace that none can break,
A joy that ne'er shall flee.
When shall I lay me down to wake
To these, O Lord, and thee?
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Far from my heavenly home,
Far from my Father’s breast,
Fainting I cry, blest Spirit, come
And speed me to my rest.
Upon the willows long,
My harp has silent hung;
How should I sing a cheerful song
Till thou inspire my tongue?
My spirit homeward turns,
And fain would thither flee;
My heart, O Zion, droops and yearns,
When I remember thee.
To thee, to thee I press,
A dark and toilsome road.
When shall I pass the wilderness,
And reach the saint’s abode?
God of my life, be near!
On thee my hopes I cast:
O guide me through the desert here,
And bring me home at last!
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Sing to the Lord, His praises sound;
Sing to the Lord in joyful strains;
Spread the triumphant tidings round,
And tell the world her Saviour reigns.
Your worthless gods, vain men, forgo.
And give the God of gods his due.
Your songs, your hearts, your all bestow.
On him, who gave himself for you.
The Lord is good, the Lord is great:
How good, how great, what tongue can tell?
Glory and grandeur round him wait.
And lo! he comes with man to dwell.
Let heaven be glad, let earth rejoice;
Let rocks make answer to the wave.
Woods, hills, and vales find all a voice.
For him, who comes to bless and save!
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The genesis of this project was a four-week sermon series in the Psalms preached in the gathered worship of Redeemer Fellowship in July of 2012, the goal of which was to let four different psalms instruct our church to pray in ways that might not come naturally to us. In preparation for the series, after we had chosen the four Psalms, we sent the versified versions of those psalms from Henry Francis Lyte’s Spirit of the Psalms (published in 1834) to songwriters in our congregation and asked for tunes to be written, which would then be sung in worship in conjunction with the sermons on each of those psalms.
In addition to the singing of these psalms in corporate worship, we have also made, in the same room in which they were sung, these homemade recordings, using basically our live sound system and podcast rig. Various musicians who volunteer in our music ministry participated, and the recordings reflect but a small cross-section of the stylistic breadth of music in which our congregation sings.
In versifying the Psalms, the intention of Henry Francis Lyte (English pastor and author of the well-known hymns “Abide with Me,” “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken,” and “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven”) was to encapsulate the meaning of each psalm in 4 or 5 stanzas, crafting the texts with congregational singing in mind. These four psalms in particular push us outside the limited range of experience and emotion to which we gravitate, expressing not only joy in our salvation, but also anger towards injustice, perplexity and grief in the face of pain, and sorrow over sin. These emotions are no less “Christian” than is joy, and these Psalms give us language to live in them.
released October 10, 2012
Recorded and mixed by Wes Crawford, Josh Downing, and Chris Erickson in the sanctuary of Redeemer Fellowship
(Click on track titles for track credits.)
