The steadfast love of the Lord (never ceases)

Sun, 08/12/2012 - 00:03 — Haruo

If you search texts for "The steadfast love of the Lord", as I just did, you'll get three hits:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases

The first of these is what I was looking for, The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, the text from Lamentations as worded and tuned by Edith McNeill, which is attested in 5 hymnals according to the text authority page. However, the fifth instance, from Wonder, Love, and Praise: a supplement to the Hymnal 1982 #755, appears to me to be a separate hymn text (despite the identity of first line), with an independent tune by Carl Haywood (probably not coeval with the text).

The second hit, "Readings", is one of those grab-bag results that makes absolutely no sense to me. Why on earth such a result is even possible, let alone why it is linked to this first line, is beyond me.

The third hit, "The steadfast love of the Lord", shows two instances, but insufficient information to determine whether one or both of them are actually instances of the McNeill song or of the song in Wonder, Love, and Praise. Both look to me likely not to be American.

Anyhow, I will try to dig out my WL&P and see if there's any information there that's missing from the Hymnary.org record, but I doubt it. According to the information here, rather than crediting the text to Edith McNeill, © 1974 or 1975, it is credited anonymously to the New Zealand hymnal A New Zealand Prayer Book - He Karakia Mihihare O Aotearoa, © 1989.