O clap your hands, all nations, cry

O for a shout of sacred joy, exclaims Watts, hard on the heels of the sons of Korah; other popular song-style lyrics have been composed more recently. David Preston’s 1986 version was first published in BP in that year and is retained here unchanged. Some critics have accused the editors of encouraging charismatic excess by references to hands being clapped or raised (cf 134 etc); their quarrel would appear to be not so much with Praise! as with the Psalmists and all subsequent translators and versifiers. Wesley’s Clap your hands, ye (you) people all is still sung. In any case, biblical handclapping means triumph rather than enjoyment or entertainment. DGP writes: ‘When God intervened to help his people, he was considered to have come down and “visited��? them. After victory was given, he ascended again to heaven. Christians see the supreme example of this in the incarnation and ascension of Christ’. In addition, the mention of Abraham reminds us that the promised blessings are international; this too is potentially a missionary Psalm. And in Scripture God is always seen as choosing, arriving, and ruling. A snatch of the same Psalm is also heard in 485. CHURCH TRIUMPHANT has also been retained as the best ‘rising’ tune for this text; it is also used at 462 and 634. James Elliott composed it for Again the Lord’s own day is here, but it first appeared in Sullivan’s Church Hymns (in which Elliott assisted, 1874) set to 3 other hymns, one of which included the words ‘Triumphant leaders’ from which its name was taken. Since then it has continued to be in such demand that many hymnals include it 3 or 4 times; the 2004 CH may hold the record with 6.

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*.