We have heard of your deeds, Lord, in days that are past

Authors:
Themes:
Scriptures:
  • Exodus 10:2
  • Exodus 13:14
  • Deuteronomy 6:20
  • Joshua 23:1-13
  • Joshua 24:12-13
  • Judges 6:13
  • 1 Samuel 17:47
  • 2 Chronicles 20:15
  • Psalms 44
  • Psalms 74:1
  • Psalms 77:5
  • Psalms 77:11-14
  • Psalms 78:3-7
  • Psalms 78:55
  • Psalms 79:4
  • Proverbs 21:31
  • Joel 1:3
  • Romans 8:36
  • James 5:16
Book Number:
  • 44

We have heard of your deeds, Lord, in days that are past-
our fathers have told us the story-
how the nations, defeated, were driven away;
to you they ascribed all the glory.
For the strength of your arm won the battles they fought,
they knew that their cause had your favour,
and the land they possessed was a land that was bought
for slaves who were freed by their Saviour.

2. We own you our King and in you put our trust,
expecting your name, all-prevailing,
to destroy our assailants, to honour our boast
that prayer never proves unavailing.
Ever thankful we praise you; your grace, Lord, alone
has saved us from foes so much stronger,
not our swords nor our bows were sufficient to win
when your church met with those who had wronged her.

3. Yet now we are scattered, defeated and lost,
derided and scorned by those near us.
You have made us turn back from the foe, and our host
no longer meets armies that fear us.
Will you still hide your face in our need and despair?
Awake, Lord, and come and deliver!
For the sake of your covenant grace, hear our prayer,
and do not reject us for ever.

© Author/Praise Trust
Gordon Booth

The Father - His Covenant

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Tune

The story behind the hymn

Here is a Psalm from a time of national disaster; as with one voice, the nation appeals to God. Gordon Booth has chosen an unusual metre; the difficulty of making a convincing hymn in English from an anapaestic rhythm (two weak beats and one strong) may account for its scarcity in most metrical indexes—though Charles Wesley was not shy of attempting it, fresh maybe from galloping on horseback. The original form of this text, in ‘thee/thou’ mode, first appeared in the author’s own collection of Hymns for a Tabernacle (words only, 1992, music edn 1999) with seven other Psalm versions among its 54 texts. He agreed to a rendering in ‘you’ form, with some other minor changes, for its appearance in Praise! The author recommended a new tune by Andrew Biggs for his words; the present book opts for SALAMIS (=ATHENS)—which was usually associated with Jemima Luke’s I think when I read that sweet story of old. She heard this Gk air being sung as a school marching tune at Gray’s Inn Road School in central London. Her own words were written for it, and text and tune appeared together in the Sunday School Teachers’ Magazine in 1841. With the inevitable fading of those words, this proves a useful way of preserving a singable melody in an unusual metre

A look at the author

Booth, Gordon Thomas

b Teddington, Middlesex 1922. d New Fairholme, Oswestry 15th July, 2013. Converted 1935 through Upper Tooting Crusaders, he trained for the Congregational ministry at New Coll, London.  After serving churches in Oldbury and Leigh-on-Sea (Essex), he retired to Oswestry (Shrops). He was an Elder of Quinta Independent Evangelical Church, Weston Rhyn, nr Oswestry. As a co-founder of the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches he was for some years responsible for its publications. Hymns for a Tabernacle: Scriptural Hymns and Paraphrases (54 items) was published 1992 (words only); music edn 1999, with many new tunes by Andrew Biggs, a former organist of Oldbury Congregational Ch. While acknowledging that some will find these texts old-fashioned, his Preface includes the comment that ‘We have known so little of the power and presence of God that it is hardly to be wondered that worship is impoverished and the writing of hymns of quality is rare’. One hymn, with a line repeated to close each of its 3 stzs, ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’, features in the 2004 edn of CH. No.308.