Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! Psalm 117:1
We have decided to start a new tradition, we intend to post a “hymn of the month” on the first day of every month. This month’s hymn is one of my absolute favorites. I find it is a most perfect song to begin a Sunday Morning Worship Service and it is absolutely delightful to sing under a blue spring sky with green budding things surrounding you. I think the tune also sounds like glorious spring.
This hymn was penned by Joachim Neander (1650-80) who has been called “the greatest of all German-Calvinist Reformed hymn writers.” Neander picked the tune himself so the text has never been sung to anything but “Lobe Den Herren.” Catherine Winkworth (1827-78) translated it from German.
Praise to the Lord,
the Almighty, the King of creation.
O my soul, praise Him,
for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear,
now to His temple draw near;
join me in glad adoration!
Praise to the Lord,
who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth,
shelters thee under His wings,
yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen
how thy desires e’er have been
Granted in what He ordaineth.
Praise to the Lord,
who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
surely his goodness
and mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew
what the Almighty can do,
who with His love doth befriend thee.
Praise to the Lord,
who when tempests their
warefare are waging,
Who, when the elements madly around thee are raging,
Biddeth them cease,
Turneth their fury to peace,
Whirlwinds and waters assuaging.
Praise to the Lord
who, when darkness and sin
are abounding,
Who, when the godless do triumph, all virtue confounding,
Sheddeth His light,
Chaseth the horrors of night,
Saints with His mercy surrounding.
Praise to the Lord!
O let all that is in me
adore Him!
All that hath life and breath,
come now with praises before Him!
Let the amen sound from His people again;
gladly for aye we adore Him.
(I found many verses and variations of verses for this hymn. Some even have it as “Praise ye the Lord” instead of “Praise to the Lord”)
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