When I wrote about Timothy Dudley-Smith's hymn, Name of all Majesty, I said that I would no doubt include a few more of his hymns in future posts. It's taken four months to get there (!), and I've chosen Fill your hearts with joy and gladness.
As its first line indicates, it's a joyful hymn. So it demands a joyful tune! According to his notes in A House of Praise (Oxford University Press, 2003,
pp 393-395), TDS suggested two possible tunes: Regent Square or Unser Herrscher (Neander). Kevin Mayhew hymnbooks have a habit of setting it to Ode to Joy, which in my opinion doesn't work as a congregational tune - it needs a full choir and orchestra fully to express the joy of its title. Another tune, which we often used for Fill your hearts in my previous church, is called Laus et Honor. It worked particularly well with a saxophone playing the melody! Sadly, the only recording of that tune I can find online is a sample verse here.
Fill your hearts with joy and gladness is based on Psalm 147. As TDS notes (see reference above), "This is a psalm linking the wonders of creation with the glories of providence and grace." Michael Wilcock (The Message of Psalms 73-150, IVP, 2001, p 277) points out that the psalm celebrates, "the Lord as both Creator and Redeemer, who cares alike for his world and for his people." It's good to be reminded of these facts, and so to allow the Lord to encourage us, as we struggle with the problems of the world around us right now. Fill your hearts with joy and gladness reflects all the themes of the psalm, and gives a vehicle to praise our Lord, who has created this universe and all that is in it, who provides abundantly for his people through the crops we harvest, and who also cares tenderly for his people on an individual level.
You can hear a recording of this hymn here.
There's a lyric video here.
No comments:
Post a Comment