Musical Notes

Hello OCBC family,
“Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great: You are clothed with honor and majesty, Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters, Who makes the clouds His chariot, Who walks on the wings of the wind.” (Psalm 104:1-3).

This Psalm was part of the Anglo-Genevan Psalter (1561), and Robert Grant used it as inspiration for his famous hymn, “O Worship the King.”
Grant is using Psalm 104 to worship God as the King of creation, who rules everywhere.

Robert Grant was born in Bengal, India, 1779 and died in Dalpoorie, India, 1838. His father was a director of the East India Company. He received education in Cambridge, and he was a member of the British Parliament. He wrote several hymns, but “O Worship the King” is the most familiar one.

“O worship the King all-glorious above,
O gratefully sing his power and his love:
our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days,
pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.”

The melody that we loved to sing, for many years was attributed to Johann Michael Haydn, brother of the very famous German composer, Franz Joseph Haydn. But after some investigations, the melody is a composition by Joseph Martin Kraus, who was a fine composer and close friend of F. J. Haydn.

The hymn has, originally, six stanzas, but in our modern hymnals, we have just four stanzas, nevertheless, let me share with you the “original” final stanza.

“O mea­sure­less might! In­ef­fa­ble love!
While an­gels de­light to hymn Thee above,
The hum­bler cre­ation, though fee­ble their lays,
With true ado­ra­tion shall all sing Thy praise.”

This is a wonderful expression of worship and praise to our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

“Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
in Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies, how tender, how firm to the end,
our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.”

Have a blessed week.
In His service,
Israel