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Happy the man, whose cautious feet
Author: Isaac Watts Appears in 51 hymnals Scripture: Psalm 1
Happy the man, whose cautious feet
O Lord, our heavenly King
Author: Isaac Watts Appears in 129 hymnals Scripture: Psalm 8
O Lord, our heavenly King
Oh! that the Lord's salvation
Author: Henry Francis Lyte Appears in 130 hymnals Scripture: Psalm 14
Oh! that the Lord's salvation
Happy the man, whose cautious feet
Author: Isaac Watts Hymnal: CHBW1878 #545 (1878) Scripture: Psalm 1
Happy the man, whose cautious feet
O Lord, our heavenly King
Author: Isaac Watts Hymnal: CHBW1878 #121 (1878) Scripture: Psalm 8
O Lord, our heavenly King
Oh! that the Lord's salvation
Author: Henry Francis Lyte Hymnal: CHBW1878 #630 (1878) Scripture: Psalm 14
Oh! that the Lord's salvation
Thomas Sternhold
1449 - 1549 Scripture: Psalm 18 Hymnal Number: 95 Author of "The Lord descended from above" in The Chapel hymn book, with tunes Thomas Sternhold was Groom of the Robes to Henry VIII and Edward VI. With Hopkins, he produced the first English version of the Psalms before alluded to. He completed fifty-one; Hopkins and others composed the remainder. He died in 1549. Thirty-seven of his psalms were edited and published after his death, by his friend Hopkins. The work is entitled "All such Psalms of David as Thomas Sternhold, late Groome of the King's Majestye's Robes, did in his Lyfetime drawe into Englyshe Metre." Of the version annexed to the Prayer Book, Montgomery says: "The merit of faithful adherence to the original has been claimed for this version, and need not to be denied, but it is the resemblance which the dead bear to the living." Wood, in his "Athenae Oxonlenses" (1691, vol. I, p. 62), has the following account of the origin of Sternhold's psalms: "Being a most zealous reformer, and a very strict liver, he became so scandalized at the amorous and obscene songs used in the Court, that he, forsooth, turned into English metre fifty-one of David's psalms, and caused musical notes to be set to them, thinking thereby that the courtiers would sing them instead of their sonnets; but they did not, some few excepted. However, the poetry and music being admirable, and the best that was made and composed in these times, they were thought fit to be sung in all parochial churches." Of Sternhold and Hopkins, old Fuller says: "They were men whose piety was better than their poetry, and they had drunk more of Jordan than of Helicon." Sternhold and Hopkins may be taken as the representatives of the strong tendency to versify Scripture that came with the Reformation into England--a work men eagerly entered on without the talent requisite for its successful accomplishment. The tendency went so far, that even the "Acts of the Apostles" was put into rhyme, and set to music by Dr. Christopher Tye.
--Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872.
Thomas Sternhold
Joseph Addison
1672 - 1719 Scripture: Psalm 19 Hymnal Number: 82 Author of "The spacious firmament on high" in The Chapel hymn book, with tunes Addison, Joseph, born at Milston, near Amesbury, Wiltshire, May 1, 1672, was the son of the Rev. Lancelot Addison, sometime Dean of Lichfield, and author of Devotional Poems, &c, 1699. Addison was educated at the Charterhouse, and at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating B.A. 1691 and M.A. 1693. Although intended for the Church, he gave himself to the study of law and politics, and soon attained, through powerful influence, to some important posts. He was successively a Commissioner of Appeals, an Under Secretary of State, Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Chief Secretary for Ireland. He married, in 1716, the Dowager Countess of Warwick, and died at Holland House, Kensington, June 17, 1719. Addison is most widely known through his contributions to The Spectator, The Toiler, The Guardian, and The Freeholder. To the first of these he contributed his hymns. His Cato, a tragedy, is well known and highly esteemed. Addison's claims to the authorship of the hymns usually ascribed to him, or to certain of them, have been called in question on two occasions. The first was the publication, by Captain Thompson, of certain of those hymns in his edition of the Works of Andrew Marvell, 1776, as the undoubted compositions of Marvell; and the second, a claim in the Athenaeum, July 10th, 1880, on behalf of the Rev. Richard Richmond. Fully to elucidate the subject it will be necessary, therefore, to give a chronological history of the hymns as they appeared in the Spectator from time to time.
i. The History of the Hymns in The Spectator. This, as furnished in successive numbers of the Spectator is :—
1. The first of these hymns appeared in the Spectator of Saturday, July 26, 1712, No. 441, in 4 stanzas of 6 lines. The article in which it appeared was on Divine Providence, signed “C." The hymn itself, "The Lord my pasture shall prepare," was introduced with these words:—
"David has very beautifully represented this steady reliance on God Almighty in his twenty-third psalm, which is a kind of pastoral hymn, and filled with those allusions which are usual in that kind of writing As the poetry is very exquisite, I shall present my readers with the following translation of it." (Orig. Broadsheet, Brit. Mus.)
2. The second hymn appeared in the Spectator on Saturday, Aug. 9, 1712, No. 453, in 13 st. of 4 1., and forms the conclusion of an essay on " Gratitude." It is also signed " C," and is thus introduced:—
“I have already obliged the public with some pieces of divine poetry which have fallen into my hands, and as they have met with the reception which they deserve, I shall, from time to time, communicate any work of the same nature which has not appeared in print, and may be acceptable to my readers." (Orig. Broadsheet, British Museum)
Then follows the hymn:—"When all Thy mercies, 0 my God."
3. The number of the Spectator for Tuesday, Aug. 19, 1712, No. 461, is composed of three parts. The first is an introductory paragraph by Addison, the second, an unsigned letter from Isaac Watts, together with a rendering by him of Ps. 114th; and the third, a letter from Steele. It is with the first two we have to deal. The opening paragraph by Addison is:—
“For want of time to substitute something else in the Boom of them, I am at present obliged to publish Compliments above my Desert in the following Letters. It is no small Satisfaction, to have given Occasion to ingenious Men to employ their Thoughts upon sacred Subjects from the Approbation of such Pieces of Poetry as they have seen in my Saturday's papers. I shall never publish Verse on that Day but what is written by the same Hand; yet shall I not accompany those Writings with Eulogiums, but leave them to speak for themselves." (Orig. Broadsheet, British Museum
Joseph Addison
James Merrick
1720 - 1769 Scripture: Psalm 23 Hymnal Number: 468 Author of "To thy pastures fair and large" in The Chapel hymn book, with tunes Merrick, James , M.A., was born in 1720, and educated at Oxford, where he became a Fellow of Trinity College. He entered Holy Orders, but his health would not admit of parish work. He died at Reading, 1769. His publications include:—
(1) Messiah, a Divine Essay. Humbly dedicated to the Reverend the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and the Visitors of the Free School in Reading. By James Merrick, Ætat. 14, Senior Scholar of the School at their last Terminal Visitation, the 7th of October, 1734. Reading. (2) The Destruction of Troy. Translated from the Greek of Tryphiodorus into English Verse, with Notes, &c. 1742. (3) Poems on Sacred Subjects. Oxford . 1763. (4) The Psalms of David Translated or Paraphrased in English Verse. By James Merrick, M.A., late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. Reading. J. Carnan and Co. 1765. 2nd ed. 1766. A few only of these paraphrases were divided into stanzas. In 1797 the Rev. W. D. Tattersall pulished the work "Divided into stanzas for Parochial Use, and paraphrased in such language as will be intelligible to every capacity . . . with a suitable Collect to each Psalm from the Works of Archbishop Parker."
Merrick's paraphrases, although weak and verbose, were in extensive use in the early part of the present century, both in the Church of England and with Nonconformists. They have, however, fallen very much into disuse. Those in modern hymn-books, mainly in the form of centos, include:—
1. Blest Instructor, from Thy ways. Ps. xix.
2. Descend, O Lord! from heaven descend. Ps. cxliv. (In time of National Peril.)
3. Far as creation's bounds extend. Ps. cxlv.
4. God of my strength, the wise, the just. Ps. xxxi.
5. He who with generous pity glows. Ps. xli.
6. How pleasant, Lord.Thy dwellings are. Ps. lxxxiv.
7. Lift up your voice and thankful sing. Ps. cxxxvi.
8. Lo, my Shepherd's hand divine. Ps. xxiii.
9. Lord, my Strength, to Thee I pray. Ps. xxviii.
10. My heart its noblest theme has found. Ps.xlv.
11. O let me, [gracious] heavenly Lord extend. Ps. xxxix.
12. O turn, great Ruler of the skies. Ps. li.
13. Praise, O praise the Name divine. Ps. cl.
14. Sing, ye sons of [men] might, O sing. Ps. xxix.
15. Teach me, O teach me, Lord, Thy way. Ps. cxix.
16. The festal morn, my [O] God, is come. Ps. cxxii, (Sunday Morning.)
17. The morn and eve Thy praise resound. Ps. lxv. (Harvest.)
18. To Thy pastures, fair and large. Ps. xxiii.
From his Poems on Sacred Subjects, 1763, the following centos have also come into common use: --
19. Author of good, to Thee we turn. Resignation.
20. Eternal God, we look to Thee. Resignation.
21. 'Tis enough, the hour is come. Nunc Dimittis.
John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
James Merrick
