Praise Notes: The Book of Praise Nine

Ninth in a series of posts that go through hymns in The Book of Praise of the Presbyterian Church of Canada. 

Hymn #32

Within your temple, Lord

Psalm 48

Gopsal

Paraphrase, United Presbyterian Book of Psalms 1871

Music: Congregational Church Music 1853

public domain

 

Within your temple, Lord, your mercies we will tell,
for where your name is known there does your praise excel:
your praises sound through every land;
with righteous reign you shall command.Mount Zion, now rejoice! Let Judah’s daughters praise
with strong and cheerful voice, the justice God displays;
go round the walls on Zion’s mount
its many splendours to recount.

The towers of Zion tell; its palaces survey;
mark its defences well, and to your children say:
“The Lord, our faithful God and guide,
this God forever shall abide.”

The paraphrase is considerably shorter than the original Psalm and seems to leave out most of the more martial elements.  Other than that, it fits nicely with the phrasing of the melody.  If it were not the Lectionary Psalm of the day, I don’t think I would pick it for a service.

The tune for this hymn is ok.  I’m not a huge fan, but it isn’t hard to sing and congregations will pick it up fairly quickly.  I like the fact that the second half is not just more of the same.  After two repeated lines there are two upward flowing phrases which lead to a nice climax.