To the cheef Musitian, upon Neginoth, a Psalme, a song. It expresseth a longing for the universall Spreading of that saving grace which is offred to Jewes & Gentiles; & shewes the blessednes which will succeed the same. It is daylie sung in our Liturgie for the enlargment of the Catholick Faith.
1. Thy blessing, Lord, bestowe; Shewe us thy glor’ous Face, (Selah.) That all the world, thy waies may knowe And see thy saving-grace.
2. Let all men give thee praise; Let all sing praise to thee: Let nations all sing out thy praise, For thou their Judge must be.
3. God is the Nations’ kinge; (Selah.) Let Nations all therefore, Let Nations all, unto him, sing And praise him ever more.
4. Then earth shall give encrease; And God, whose Folke we are, That God shall us vouchsafe to blesse, And him, the world shall fear.
Allmighty God, vouchsafe that we, whome thou has alreadie enlightned with a gratious measure of thy Saving knowledge, may so evidently enjoy also thy protection & the continuall brightnes of thy Favour; that all the Nations of the world, beholding the benifit of thy Service, may be allured to joyne with us in magnifienge of thee. Let also a due consideration that thou art Universall king, & makes us beleeve that thou hast provided means of salvation for all thy Subjects: and let the remembrance that thou art universall Judge, make us all so fruitfull that thou maist be universally feared & glorified, & we blessed world without end. Amen.
(S.M.) Short Meter or 66.86
Tunes (First Lines): Bellwoods: O day of God, draw nigh; Boylston: A charge to keep I have; Carlisle: All praise to you, O Lord; Teach me, my God and King; Festal Song: Rise up, ye saints of God; Franconia: Blest are the pure in heart; Nova Vita: Breathe on me, Breath of God; Silver Street: Soldiers of Christ, arise; Southwell: Lord Jesus, think on me; St. Bride: Out of the depths I call; St. Ethelwald: Awake and sing the song; Help us, O Lord, to learn; St. George: Praise we the Lord this day; For thy dear saints, O Lord; St. Michael: O day of God, draw nigh; St. Thomas (Williams): O bless the Lord, my soul; I love Thy kingdom, Lord.
To the cheef Musitian, an Altaschith, a Psalm of David, when he fledd from Saul in the Cave. It mystically expressed the Jewes persecutinge Christ, even unto his Grave; we, that are his members & partake in his suffrings, may sing it to declare our injuries & to pray & praise God for deliverances, &c.
1. Lord, grant (O grant) me thy compassion; For I, in thee my trust have plac’d; Display thy wings for my Salvation, Untill my greefs are over-pass’d. To thee, I sue (O God, most high) To thee that canst all want supplie.
2. From their despights who seek to rend me, Let help, O Lord, from heav’n be daign’d, And let thy Truth & Love defend me; For I with Lions am detain’d: With men inflam’d, whose biting words Are shafts & spears & naked swords.
3. Let over heav’n, God’s praise be rearèd, And through the world, his glorie show’d. For they who netts for me preparèd, (They who my soul to ground had bow’d) Ev’n they with in those trapps are caught, Which for my fall, their hands had wrought. (Selah.)
4. O God, my hart now ready maketh; My hart for thy praise preparing: My Tongue, my Harpe, my Lute awaketh. I my selfe betimes uprearing, Will speake & sing in praise of thee Where greatest throngs of people be.
5. For Lord, thy Mercies forth are stretchèd As farr as the Sphears extended; Thy Truth unto the Clouds hath reachèd, And thy self art high ascended. Let still thy Fame & praise, O God, Through heav’n & earth be spread abrode.
O Lord, to whome Mercy belongeth, have mercy upon us; & let the Wings of thy protection be gratiously spread over us untill the Stormes of this life be overpast: For so great & so manyfold are those dangers & those Miseries, wherewith we are alwaies enclosed by spirituall & temporal foes; that they have brought our bodies to the Grave & our soules near unto Hell. O let thy Truth & Love defend us from our Lion-like persecuters! that our Harts (being timely cheared) our Thoughts, Words, & Actions, may harmoniously agree in manifesting thy praises. And seeing thy holy Spirit hath plainely declared the Universality of thy proffered Grace, let not us presume to sett Limmits there unto; but publish thy glorie as universaly as thou hast extended thy Mercies, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Meter: 98.98.88
Tune (First Line): Wer nur den lieben Gott lässt walten: If thou but trust in God to guide.
To the cheef Musitian, upon Neginoth, a Maschil, a Psalm of David. It personated the faithfull, complaining & petitioning against the inhumanitie of their foes. It deciphers, also, false brethren, declares their destruction & the securitie of the Elect. It may be used as the former.
1. О God, my praiers hear! Hide not away thine eare But hear & cast on me thine eye, For loud my foes doe roare. The wicked greeve me sore, And therfore Lord, thus loud I crie.
2. With wrongs, they me persue; A wrathfull spight they shewe, And I at hart am greatlie vext: Death’s torments me oppresse; I shake through fearfulness; With horrors great, I am perplext.
3. I sayd Dove’s wings, had I, To rest, I then would flie. Lo, then farr hence I would abide. I then would haste away, And in some Desert stay, Which from the Tempest me should hide. (Selah.)
4 Destroy & slitt their tongues; For strife, O Lord, & wrongs, Possesse their Cittie night & day, In midst thereof I spi’de; Sinn, fraud, & guile abide; These in her streats still made their stay.
5. A foe’s contempt or scorne, I could have shund or borne; But me, no publike foe abus’de: It was my trusted Peer; As freinds, we freindlie were, And we God’s house togither us’d.
6. Arrest them, Death & Hell, With whome such Mischeevs dwell: For I upon the Lord will call. To God at night I’le pray, At morninge, at nooneday; And me, both hear & save, he shall.
7. In warr, he gave me peace, And me will still release: Ev’n me, the Lord will hear and save. But God will punish them: (Selah.) For they his feare contemn, Because, that they no Changes have.
8. Their hands, the Peace did breake, (Where they a league did make) And though their speach most freindlie were, Yet, are sometime their words Like darts or naked swords. Let God, therefore, thy Burthen bear.
9. For God is thy defence, He gardeth innocence; And Sinners downe to Hell will thrust. Not half their daies they live Who murther or deceive: But in the Lord, I put my trust.
Many & greevous (O Lord) are those troubles which exercise thy Children, especially in those places where prophanes or false worship is openly approoved: but the greatest Afflictions are occasioned by Hypocrites, False breathren, & those who abuse us under cullour of Religeon or by pretences of dearest Amitie. Defend us therfor, O God, from those harmfull Serpents; Give us the wings of Dovelike innocence to carry us above their snares: Grant us those enterchanges of Prosperitie & Adversity which may keep us both in thy Fear & Love: Suffer not the tribulations of the world, nor the temptations of the Devill, nor the miseries of the Flesh, to oppresse us: But let us lay all our burthens upon thee confidently; Trust in thee firmly; Seek thee duly; love thee sincerely; & enjoy thy gratious protection for ever more. Amen.
Meter: 668.668 Tune (First Lines): Ascalon: Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of nature; Beautiful Savior, King of creation.
In the Anglican tradition, the whole Psalter is read each month. Daily readings are divided into morning and evening:
Day
Morning Psalms
Evening Psalms
1
1
6
2
9
12
3
15
18
4
19
22
5
24
27
6
30
32
7
35
37
8
38
41
9
44
47
10
50
53
11
56
59
12
62
65
13
68
69
14
71
73
15
75
78
16
79
82
17
86
89
18
90
93
19
95
98
20
102
104
21
105
106
22
107
108
23
110
114
24
116
119
25
119
119
26
119
119
27
120
126
28
132
136
29
139
142
30
144
147
“The Psalter shall be read through once every month, as it is there appointed, both for Morning and Evening Prayer. But in February it shall be read only to the twenty-eighth, or twenty-ninth day of the month.
And, whereas January, March, May, July, August, October, and December have one-and-thirty days apiece; It is ordered, that the same Psalms shall be read the last day of the said months, which were read the day before: so that the Psalter may begin again the first day of the next month ensuing.
And, whereas the 119th Psalm is divided into twenty-two portions, and is over-long to be read at one time; It is so ordered, that at one time shall not be read above four or five of the said portions. And at the end of every Psalm, and of every such part of the 119th Psalm, shall be repeated this Hymn,
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son : and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be : world without end. Amen.
Note, that the Psalter followeth the division of the Hebrews, and the translation of the great English Bible, set forth and used in the time of King Henry the Eighth, and Edward the Sixth.”
[The Book of Common Prayer and the Administration of the Sacraments, and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (Oxford: University Press, 1836), 10–11.]
In this series, the Psalms are from the recently published Psalms of David by George Wither:
Each Psalm can be read or sung. (see hymn tunes below). There is a preface and prayer.
A Psalm for the 9th Day of the Month:
Psalm 44, Morning
(Common Meter Double)
To the Cheef Musitian, for the Sonns of Chorah. The Church pleads for God’s mercie, because he is her auncient deliverer; & because he is yet her only Trust, though she hath long sustained the scornes & oppressions of Tyrants, &c. It may be used when the Church or commonwealth is afflicted, &c.
1. O God, thy works in Ages past, We heard our fathers tell: How thou the Gentiles forth didst cast, And broughtst them there to dwell. For, nor their sword, nor Arme it was By which that land they gaind; But Lord, thy hand, thyne arme, thy grace, And favour, them sustain’d.
2. O Lord, my God, my king thou art; Thy Jacob still defend, And we shall those through thee subvart That harm to us intend. We, through thy Name, shall tread them lowe, That us resist, O Lord; For I depend not on my bowe, Nor trust I to my sword.
3. We from our foes were kept by thee, And thou didst work them shame: In thee therfore much joy’d were we, And we did praise thy Name. Yet, now disgrac’d, thou throw’st us by; Our Hoast thou dost forsake: Before our foes, thou mak’st us fly And spoiles from us they take.
4. Thou makest us the Gentiles’ meat, And us like sheep they slaie; We scattred, & for sale are sett To those who nothing paie. At us our neighbours laugh & jeer, Of us, they proverbs make: The people round us mock & fleer; At us, their heads they shake.
5. Disgrace is alwaies in my sight; And redd with shame I grow, To hear the scornfull words of spight And railings of my foe: Yet we, O Lord, forget not thee, Nor from thy cov’nant stray; Nor changed in our harts are we, Nor gone out of thy way.
6. Nay, though (opprest in death’s black shade) We lodg’d with Dragons lie; Thy Name, we nor forgotten had, Nor to strang Gods did crie. Yea Lord, thou know’st (who know’st each thought) That daylie for thy sake, We fare like sheep to slaughter brought, And so our deaths we take.
7. Lord, wake & rise; why sleepst thou so? Reject us no for aye. Why shouldst thou disrespect our woe, And hide thy face away? Behold, ev’n to the dust we make Our soules & bodies bend: Redeem us for thy mercie sake; Arise & us defend.
Deliver us, O Lord, from all our adversaries: & make us to be still mindfull what we have aunciently heard concerning thee from others; & what experience we our selves have had of thy judgments and Mercies from time to time: that neither our prosperities make us arrogate any thing to our selves, nor our Afflictions or persecutions cause us to blaspheame, or forget thee. Yea, though we should become the scorne & laughing-stock of our Neighbours, a prey to our foes, & be alwaies as the sheep appointed for slaughter; yet, keep us unchanged in the true Religeon, & in our love to thee: That thou (to whome both our outward Trialls, our inward sinceritie, is ever knowne) mayst in due time help & save us whome thou hast redeemed, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
(C.M.D.) Common Meter Double or 86.86.D (86.86.86.86; rhyme scheme: ababcdcd)
Recommended Hymn Tunes, with first lines.
Tunes (First Lines): Antioch: Joy to the World; Carol: It came upon the midnight clear; Forest Green: O little town of Bethlehem; I sing the almighty power of God; As those of old their first-fruits; Halifax: And have the bright immensities; We limit not the truth of God; Kingsfold: I heard the voice of Jesus say; Laramie: I know not where the road will lead; Materna: O beautiful for spacious skies; Noel: It came upon the midnight clear.
Steward Archives 