Musical Notes

Hello OCBC family,
“Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul! While I live I will praise the LORD; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.” (Psalm 146:1-2).

This wonderful Psalm is part of the last five Psalms of the Psalter, and the mark of these five psalms is that each one begins and end with the phrase, “Praise the Lord” (Hallelujah). This is an anonymous psalm, but some scholars believed that David was the author, and the reason is because on Psalm 103, which is by David, used almost the same words at opening, “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” (Psalm 103:1). The psalmist is encouraging to the people of Israel to don’t trust in princes but in the Lord, and this is a message for our own time. We must trust in the Lord during hard times and not on something else. Why? Because “the LORD will reign forever.” (v. 10).

This message from the psalm is the same message of the hymn of the blind author Fanny Crosby, “Praise Him! Praise Him!”

“Praise Him! praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!
Sing, O earth, His wonderful love proclaim!
Hail Him! hail Him! highest archangels in glory,
Strength and honor give to His holy name!
Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard His children;
In His arms He carries them all day long:
Praise Him! praise Him! tell of His excellent greatness!
Praise Him! praise Him! ever in joyful song!”

Fanny Crosby was very popular in her time because she was a very prolific poet and hymn writer. She was always writing a new poem or hymn for her personal collection or for some songbooks. This hymn, for example, was written for a children songbook. Pay attention to the lyrics, that even thought this hymn was written for children, it has a sound doctrine.

“Praise Him! praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!
For our sins, He suffered and bled and died;
He our Rock, our hope of eternal salvation,
Hail Him! hail Him! Jesus the crucified:
Sound His praises! Jesus who bore our sorrows,
Love unbounded, wonderful, deep, and strong
Praise Him! praise Him! tell of His excellent greatness!
Praise Him! praise Him! ever in joyful song!”

Perhaps you heard me in the past saying this about Fanny Crosby, but she wrote over eight thousand hymns.

The melody of this hymn is called “Joyful Song” by Chester G. Allen, a music educator and a publisher of several songbooks for Sunday school material.

“Praise Him! praise Him! Jesus, our blessed Redeemer!
Heav'nly portals loud with hosannas ring!
Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever and ever;
Crown Him! crown Him! prophet and priest and King!
Christ is coming, over the world victorious,
Pow'r and glory unto the Lord belong:
Praise Him! praise Him! tell of His excellent greatness!
Praise Him! praise Him! ever in joyful song!”

Trust in the Lord always and sing a joyful song for his glory.

“Praise the LORD.” (Psalm 146:10b).
​
In His service,
Israel