This old English psalm tune is from the same source, and apparently the same author, as "St. Anne." It was written for Psalm 33 in the New Version (Tate and Brady). The melody begins almost like "Orlington," written 250 years later: but its greater length allows a more expressive harmonic expansion. Nonetheless, it should be easy to learn and sing in four-part harmony.

Set to a hymn of joyful praise (Psalm 33 or 21), the 1987 Psalter Hymnal Handbook recommends forceful or even jubilant singing, possibly at a "brisk tempo" (quarter note = 150). At a more sedate tempo (110-135), this strong tune, with its melodic voice parts and rich harmonies, also fits a contemplative text.

Use:

Psalm 24, at first glance, speaks to a remote time and culture. The ancient creation myth of the defeat of the chaos-monster, personified by the sea, is hardly known except to students of ancient history and art. And yet, there is a message here that could speak powerfully to our own age, if we would only proclaim it.

Consider the Darwinian mythology that pervades much of classical biology and sociology. Isn't it, in its own way, a glorification of chaos? According to it, all life is a result of random mutations and chance survival; all human choices are conditioned by social pressures, and morality is merely an excuse for doing what is required to maintain society.

Now, modern genetics, of course, shows us a reality that sharply contrasts with the modern chaos myth: the genetic code is known to be Ordered Information, which (from a mathematical point of view) simply cannot arise by chance. And modern history is replete with examples of "socially-conditioned behavior" that destroyed the cultures which had conditioned themselves. How much did hatred and genocide help Nazi Germany? And is North Korea, so carefully conditioned and controlled, really a worker's paradise on earth? Even among sociologists (so strongly conditioned by education) there can be found the recognition that there exist truly pathological cultures -- sick societies, sinking under the weight of sin.

Thousands of years ago, the psalmist had already made the connection between the essential physical order God imposed in the creation, and the equally essential moral order God demands from his creatures. We can appreciate the scientific search for order in the universe, we can be fascinated by the wonderful complexity of life: this psalm proclaims and exemplifies the wonderful complexity of God's word, and the necessity for the search for the source of all information and all order.

This kind of moral anchor -- "Right action is necessary because of God's nature" is more profound and ultimately more convincing than themes more common in popular hymns: "I'm good" or "Why can't you be good, like me?"

This would make an excellent opening song: like Holy, Holy, Holy, it reminds us of the presence of God in worship; it goes further and calls for all worshippers to examine themselves⁷ for unholiness, which would disqualify them from worshipping.

Notes:

¹Published by the Church of Scotland, 1954 as Murrayfield Psalms, online at CCEL. The copyright is held by the Kirk Session, Murrayfield Parish Church, Edinburgh (where Dr. Brown was pastor), which has generously given permission to reproduce it electronically and publish it on the net. See also Show me Thy ways, O Lord.

²I don't know English well enough to be able to recognize the difference, but some apparent archaisms may instead be dialectical Scottish.

³Each psalm is presented in one of only five different meters; other meters are only employed in second or alternative versions of psalms.

⁴Not an unmitigated blessing; compare comments on Routley's Psalm 1 for a contrasting ideal. And insofar as linguistic drift in English causes problems with the Scottish Psalter, this version may not address the problem.

⁵Personal communication with Douglas Galbraith, Coordinator, Office for Worship and Doctrine, Church of Scotland.

⁶Published 1985 for the Reformed Church in America.

^6aThere are expressions in The Glory-land Way and My God and I that are hardly more blatant than this. One song (fortunately not in our books) declares "there are happy expressions on each face, and I know that it's the Spirit of the Lord." But another (by a member of the church, it must be admitted) declares in a similar context, "I know there are angels hanging 'round." There is no place in reverent worship for such self-satisfied introspection; there is no place in Christian evangelism for such self-centered proclamation. Public worship, like the call for moral behavior, must be grounded in God's nature, not our own goodness.

⁷By this standard, many of our hymns will be found wanting. The honest believer, faced with the reality behind this psalm and Isaiah 6 (Holy, Holy, Holy! and many other songs) will, like Isaiah, be filled with a sense of his own unholiness. This is not an aspect of faith well represented in our hymnals, and I wonder whether we don't often skip or skim over the allusions to it even in the songs we have.