Psalms in Our Time

Psalm 65: Sing to the Lord of harvest

This psalm to God the redeemer, the creator, and the provider readily takes on messianic overtones in Christian song.

Sing to the Lord of harvest,
Sing songs of love and praise;
With joyful hearts and voices
Your alleluias raise.

By him the rolling seasons
In fruitful order move;
Sing to the Lord of harvest
A joyous song of love.

God makes the clouds rain goodness,
The deserts bloom and spring,
The hills leap up in gladness,
The valleys laugh and sing.

God fills them with his fullness,
All things with large increase;
He crowns the year with blessing,
With plenty and with peace.

Bring to this sacred altar
The gifts his goodness gave,
The golden sheaves of harvest,
The souls Christ died to save.

Your hearts lay down before him
When at his feet you fall,
And with your lives adore him
Who gave his life for all.

Text: John S. B. Monsell

Meter: 7,6,7,6
Rhyme scheme: abab (imperfect)

This psalm falls naturally into three sections: Verses 1-4 praise the God who forgives sins and accepts humanity into holy fellowship with Himself; 5-8: the same God is creator and therefore ruler of the universe; 9-13: the earth joyfully provides for humanity's needs. The psalm is not merely a thanksgiving, but also a prayer: requesting forgiveness, deliverance from oppressors, and for the rain enabling another fruitful harvest.

Its emphasis on the harvest blessings of grain and oil suggest the psalm was originally a thanksgiving "carol" at harvest. But it may be better to take it as a psalm for the new year,1 celebrating both the beginning of cyclic time and the contribution of the full annual cycle to those harvest blessings.

Monsell (1811-1875) was an Irish Anglican. He wrote 300 hymns, many of them related to the seasons of the year. This song focuses on the "harvest" verses of the psalm (verses 1, 9-13). But in the context of God as savior and redeemer, after the messianic songs of Isaiah describing the transformed earth the parables of Jesus, it is inevitable that Christian thought turns to the Harvest of Souls: and so stanzas 5 and 6 make that application.

"Wie Lieblich Ist Der Maien": Johann Steurlein, 1575

Incipit: ;
Melodic scheme: aaba

Johann Steurlein held civic posts as well as musical positions in the Lutheran church in Wasungen and Meiningen. An amateur poet and musician, he rhymed parts of the Old and New Testaments, and published hymn tunes and harmonizations. This tune was originally a setting for a love song, but was soon adapted for a hymn by Martin Behm. In the early 20th century it was adapted for this text. Its folk-like style and form is appropriate for this hymn, which has (perhaps in origin as well as in spirit) much in common with traditional English harvest carols.2

Use:

Our urban communities, detached from a sense of the seasons of the year (except perhaps in the shifting sports broadcasting schedules), don't so readily find a place for seasonal songs. But the spiritual spiritual themes here (amply justified by the psalm itself) give the hymn a more general (and more generally usable) form. It would serve as a baptismal hymn, although some explanation might be necessary.

Notes:

1The Hebrew new year may have been celebrated in the fall, so the two themes would not be inconsistant.
2There were carols for many seasons of the year, not just Christmas. See the New Oxford Book of Carols.

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Copyright © 2002,2003,2004, Stephen Hutcheson
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These studies are created by members of the West Allen Church of Christ in Allen, Texas