Sing to the Lord a New Song

Introduction

• Welcome back after the summer break
• Brief refresh of the purpose of the class
• Discussion of the Focus Group Survey for PNC
• Will cover last Sunday’s anthem: Sing to the Lord a New Song, by Robert Lau
• If we have time, will cover: Stand Up and Bless the Lord (#491), which is today’s recessional hymn.

PNC Focus Group Survey

The PNC has asked groups throughout the church to complete a focus group survey. The basic way that this will work is that I’ll hand the survey out today. Either next week or the week after, depending on schedules, we’ll spend part of the class time coming up with our response. Each group (and each of the adult Christian Ed classes is a group) gets to turn in a response from that group. People who are in multiple groups (the choir is another group, for example, as is each of the session committees) should fully participate in each of those groups.

The nature of the survey is that there are a list of attributes, all of which are of value for our next pastor. Each of us is to go over this and select the 8 which we consider most important. I certainly didn’t find it easy to narrow my list to just 8 – there are many important things on that list. But narrow it to 8 is what we each need to do individually.

Either next week (Labor Day weekend) or the following weekend, we’ll meet and consolidate these votes. One question will be what 8 are the ones we’ve chosen most consistently across our group. We may want to reconsider and come back the following week for further discussion. In the end, we’ll need to report back to the PNC what 8 we as a group consider the most important.

For folks not here this week, I’m happy to mail or email a copy of the survey form.

We’ll find the week where the most of us can get together to discuss the results. If we need to take someone’s input by email, then we’ll do that, but I’d rather have this discussion in person as much as possible.

Sing to the Lord a New Song

This is a piece that the choir has done a few times now, and which we did as our back-to-worship piece. It’s not something I’d have expected us to do on a first Sunday back when we first got it, but we’ve learned it and it’s a fun piece.

The arrangement we use is from Paraclete Press and is copyright 2007.

About Robert Lau

Robert Lau has been in music since he started studying violin at age of 7. He’s currently in the Gettysburg, PA area and is the Organist and Choirmaster for Mt. Calvary Episcopal Church (in Camp Hill, PA). He’s been there for 25 years.

Lyrics

The lyrics of this piece are based on Psalms 148, 149, and 150, so let’s look at those first.

Psalm 148 (NIV)

Note that the Hebrew for “Praise the Lord” is Hallelu Yah (per NIV footnotes). These are the last three Psalms in the Book of Psalms. According to Wikipedia "Most manuscripts of the Septuagint also include a Psalm 151, present in Eastern Orthodox translations; a Hebrew version of this poem was found in the Psalms Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Psalms Scroll presents the Psalms in an order different from that found elsewhere, and also contains a number of non-canonical poems and hymns in the same style as the canonical Psalms, suggesting that the current collection of 150 may have been selected from a wider set.

1 Praise the Lord.  
    Praise the Lord from the heavens;  
    praise him in the heights above.  
2 Praise him, all his angels;  
    praise him, all his heavenly hosts.  
3 Praise him, sun and moon;  
    praise him, all you shining stars.  
4 Praise him, you highest heavens  
    and you waters above the skies.  
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,  
    for at his command they were created,  
6 and he established them for ever and ever—  
    he issued a decree that will never pass away.  
7 Praise the Lord from the earth,  
    you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,  
8 lightning and hail, snow and clouds,  
    stormy winds that do his bidding,  
9 you mountains and all hills,  
    fruit trees and all cedars,  
10 wild animals and all cattle,  
    small creatures and flying birds,  
11 kings of the earth and all nations,  
    you princes and all rulers on earth,  
12 young men and women,  
    old men and children.  
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,  
    for his name alone is exalted;  
    his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.  
14 And he has raised up for his people a horn,[b]  
    the praise of all his faithful servants,  
    of Israel, the people close to his heart.  

Praise the Lord.  

Psalm 149 (NIV)

1 Praise the Lord.  
    Sing to the Lord a new song,  
    his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.  
2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker;  
    let the people of Zion be glad in their King.  
3 Let them praise his name with dancing  
    and make music to him with timbrel and harp.  
4 For the Lord takes delight in his people;  
    he crowns the humble with victory.  
5 Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor  
    and sing for joy on their beds.  
6 May the praise of God be in their mouths  
    and a double-edged sword in their hands,  
7 to inflict vengeance on the nations  
    and punishment on the peoples,  
8 to bind their kings with fetters,  
    their nobles with shackles of iron,  
9 to carry out the sentence written against them—  
    this is the glory of all his faithful people.  

Praise the Lord.  

Psalm 150 (NIV)

1 Praise the Lord.  
    Praise God in his sanctuary;  
    praise him in his mighty heavens.  
2 Praise him for his acts of power;  
    praise him for his surpassing greatness.  
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,  
    praise him with the harp and lyre,  
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,  
    praise him with the strings and pipe,  
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,  
    praise him with resounding cymbals.  
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  

Praise the Lord.

• Are there particular areas of resonance?
• Looking at these three Psalms, what particularly jumps out at you?

Sing to the Lord a New Song lyrics

Now, let’s look at the lyrics of the piece and then listen to a rendition of the piece.

Peoples and tongues of ev’ry nation
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Bring him a song of jubilation,
Sing to the Lord a new song.
All God’s creatures,
Old men and children,
Voices raised in hymns of love.
He crowns the humble with salvation.
Sing to the Lord a new song.

Mountains and hills and all creation
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Join in a hymn of adoration.
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Praise His name, singe “Alleluia!”
Praise Him for His mighty deeds.
This is our song, our supplication:
“Sing to the Lord a new song.”

Praise Him, shining stars,
And praise Him highest heavens.
Oh, all kings and princes
Praise His holy name.
Angels above make melody to Him.
Now lift your voice,
Lift up your heart, and sing, and sing!

Come Christians all, now raise your voices,
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Praise and thanksgiving be your choices,
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Sound the trumpet,
Play on the lute and harp;
Dance your dance and shout for joy.
Make music now as heav’n rejoices,
Sing to the Lord a new song.

Sing! Sing! Sing a new song.

• What speaks to you most in these lyrics?
• How do these lyrics amplify these Psalms for you?
• How does the music amplify the lyrics for you?

A few thoughts about the music: From a rhythm perspective, this piece is a bit challenging. Much of the piece is in 7/8 time, which is unusual, and it moves into 3/8 and 3/4 time some points. The middle section is pretty straightforward, going into a 4/4 section before coming back to 7/8 for the last verse. Once you get the hang of it, it’s fun, but I’m not the one who’s up front trying to do three beats, then four beats, then three again. Muscially speaking this is a piece where the singer needs to be up on tiptoes. Or, as one of my former choir directors put it, there are some pieces that you need to drive through with an F350 pickup truck and punch a hole in the back wall of the sanctuary, and there are other pieces that are like driving a nimble sports car through the mountains. This is a sports car piece.

Stand Up, and Bless the Lord

Lyrics

Stand up, and bless the Lord,
Ye people of His choice:
Stand up, and bless the Lord your God
With heart, and soul, and voice.

Though high above all praise,
Above all blessing high,
Who would not fear his Holy name,
And laud and magnify?

O for the living flame,
From His own altar brought,
To touch our lips, our minds inspire,
And wing to heaven our thought!

There, with benign regard,
Our hymns He deigns to hear;
Though unrevealed to mortal sense,
The spirit feels him near.

God is our strength and song,
And His salvation ours;
Then be his love in Christ proclaim’d
With all our ransom’d powers.

Stand up and bless the Lord,
The Lord your God adore;
Stand up, and bless His glorious name
Henceforth for evermore.

See http://www.hymnary.org/text/stand_up_and_bless_the_lord_ye_people for a discussion of the lyrics.

There are multiple different tunes used for this piece, which is 6.6.8.6. We use Carlisle http://www.hymnary.org/tune/carlisle_lockhart, but I found it interesting that there are four different tunes all pretty equally in use.