As the fainting deer cries out

‘Like as the hart desireth the water-brooks: so longeth my soul after thee, O God’; the effect of Coverdale’s wonderful opening is somewhat qualified for regular Psalm-singers by ‘the noise of the water-pipes’ erupting in v9. But the vivid imagery of Psalm 42 has attracted many versifiers, from the stately As pants the hart for cooling streams by Tate and Brady (who manage to bring a 17th-c English hunt on to the scene), via John Bell and Keith Landis, to the lighter mood with no trace of the Psalmist’s lament found in 726, As the deer pants for the water. William Cowper’s 876, God of my life, to you I call, clearly draws on the Psalm for a hymn reflecting his own painful experience but also finding hope from the same source. Whatever the relationship between this Psalm and the next—some have postulated a single song divided into two—their connection is clear from the refrain they share, and where for the believer everything can be turned to praise. Here that link is expressed by using the same metre and tune for 2 paraphrases by the same hand. David Preston had published these in BP; this text has a small but important revision in 3.7. It was among the last to be completed for that book; ‘I felt I could not publish a set of Psalm texts without Psalm 42’—DGP. Joseph Parry’s ABERYSTWYTH, from 1876, is acknowledged as one of the very finest hymn tunes. Commonly sung to Charles Wesley’s Jesu, lover of my soul, it first appeared some 140 years after those words. The composer was Professor of Music at Aberystwyth, on the W coast of Wales, when it was published in a Welsh collection of 1879. He first set it to a Welsh hymn, but later (to conclude a cantata) for Wesley’s; see Alan Luff in Welsh Hymns and their Tunes, 1990, notably pp212–213. D Martyn Lloyd-Jones was one of those who have counselled caution against being seduced by the power of the music, notably in the climactic 7th line; the meaning of the words is paramount.

b London 1939. d 2020. Archbishop Tenison’s Grammar School, Kennington, London; Keble College Oxford (MA Mod Langs.) He worked as a French Teacher, including 11 years at Ahmadu Bello Univ, Nigeria, and gained a PhD on the French Christian poet Pierre Emmanuel (1916 84). A member of Carey Baptist Ch, Reading, for many years, he later moved to Alweston, nr Sherborne, Dorset. He compiled The Book of Praises (Carey Publications, Liverpool) in 1987, with versions of 71 Psalms; these include modified texts of Watts and a few other classic paraphrasers, but most are by contemporary writers including himself. 60 of his metrical Psalm versions are so far published, including one each in Sing Glory (2000), the Scottish Church Hymnary 4th Edn (2005) and Sing Praise (2010), and 3 in the 2004 edn of CH; also 10 tunes. His writing and composing has taken place in Leicester, Reading, Nigeria and his present home; he was a member of the editorial board throughout the preparation of Praise! and had a major share in the choice of music for the Psalm texts (1-150). His convictions about the Psalms, as expressed in the Introduction to BP, are that ‘There is nothing to compare with their blend of the subjective and the objective, the inner life and practical goodness, the knowledge of one’s own rebellious heart and the knowledge of God…Today’s general neglect of congregational Psalm singing is a symptom of the spiritual malaise of our churches. When the preaching of the Gospel has prospered, bringing into being churches vibrant with spiritual life, men and women have taken great delight in praising their Maker and Redeemer through these scriptural hymns’. 15 of his own, self-selected, feature as his share of ‘contemporary hymns’ in the 2009 Come Celebrate; he has also served as a meticulous proof-reader. Nos.1, 2A, 5*, 6, 7, 11, 15, 16, 17, 19A, 24A, 27A, 30B, 32*, 33*, 38, 40, 42, 43, 47, 51*, 52, 55, 57*, 64, 66, 74, 76, 77, 84, 90, 91A, 96*, 97, 99, 100B, 101, 114*, 120, 126, 132, 139, 142*, 143, 145A, 147*, 824*, 830*, 963*.