Psalm 19b: God's law is perfect and gives life

This very literal versification of the modern Anglican Prayer Book translation of the second part of the psalm, was intended to be an alternative to the Anglican chant version. It has since come into more general use.

The psalm praises and cherishes God's Word for its effectiveness: but it doesn't end there. If that Word were truly effective, the singer would see the effect in his own life (blessings) and in his own conscience (knowledge of his own lack of holiness); and he would pray for help in his struggle against sin.

This text is from a modern more-or-less-complete metrical psalter¹ in the spirit of earlier Anglican psalters. Its goals have been to (1) follow as closely as possible to the language of the current translation² while (2) nominally fitting the metrical form and (3) preserving normal English word order. As this psalm illustrates, Webber has often been very successful not only in matching English to Hebrew words, but in matching lines of English poetry to Hebrew lines.

This attractive minor-key tune from Handel's 1748 oratorio Salome was quickly adapted as a hymn tune. This harmonization, made for a different hymn in the 1941 Episcopal Hymnal, is still under copyright.

This combination of tune and text, in the 1990 Presbyterian Hymnal, shows that both text and tune have been successfully used outside their originating community. I have not seen the combination in any other hymnal.

This is a beautiful, interesting, and singable tune, but doesn't seem to me to match the contemplative mood of the text. Webber suggested "Chelsea Square"³ as a possible tune. Other "common meter" (8,6,8,6) tunes,⁴ preferably double-length, might be suitable.

Use:

This is another theme that is not well represented in our books: we have songs about God's word and our love for it--but nothing that follows this line of reasoning to its logical conclusion.

Notes:

¹Christopher Webber, A New Metrical Psalter, © 1986. Its copyright deserves notice, as an example of how people who are genuinely interested in improving their community's hymnody might act: "This book (not just individual psalms!--ed.) may be reproduced by a congregation for its own use without charge or permission." (Commercial reproduction of any portions require permission.) In reproducing this and Psalm 15 I gratefully acknowledge Mr. Webber's generosity. Contrast this generous spirit with the harm Louis Benson describes (in The English Hymn, 1915, online at CCEL) as the pernicious effect of copyrighted material on congregational singing.
²The 1979 Book of Common Prayer of the American episcopal church, which included a complete translation of the Psalms annotated for singing with Anglican or Gregorian chant.
³Found in The Hymnal, 1982 of the Episcopal church; also still under copyright.
⁴See the Metrical Indexes at the CCEH.

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Psalms in Our Time