Shelter safely in the shadow

Another Psalm in a sequence of those with established ‘hymn’ versions is the 91st, familiar to many as the choice for late night services. This first of 2 versions was completed by David Preston, appears for the first time in the present book, and stays close to the biblical text. The positive promises of the Psalm must be held to, whatever perverted use Satan may make of them in his selective quotation (Matthew 4:6 etc). It breathes the experience of both immediate and ultimate security; ‘together with 46, the most impressive testimony in the Psalms to the strength that springs from trust in God’— Weiser. Other notable paraphrases include Montgomery’s Call Jehovah thy salvation (as in CH, updated in the 2004 edn) and Martin Leckebusch’s Within the shelter of the LORD which faces the day’s ‘brutal conflicts’, the night’s ‘nameless perils’ and ‘our primal fears’. CALON LÂN, by John Hughes (Glandw^r) of Landore, Swansea, was a popular tune during the 1904–05 revival. It was written at the urgent request of Daniel James, author of the Welsh hymn Calon Lân, while the composer was enjoying his tea between Sunday School and the evening service; John Hughes returned the words and presented the music to his friend on the way back to chapel. It seems not to have been published until 1921 in the hymn-book of the Welsh Independents; it began to appear in English books from The Baptist Hymn Book of 1962 onwards. It has been set to various words, notably Montgomery’s version of this Psalm, Call Jehovah thy salvation and (at Billy Graham crusade meetings among others) What a friend we have in Jesus.

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*.