Psalm 103

Praise, my soul, the King of heaven

with
BENEDICTION
PRAISE MY SOUL (LAUDA ANIMA MEA) 

I. Text: Origins

In 1834, Anglican minister Henry Francis Lyte (1793–1847) published a set of Psalm paraphrases under the title Spirit of the Psalms (1834). At the time, Lyte was curate of Lower Brixham, a coastal town in southern England on the English Channel. His collection contained many of his own paraphrases, together with some paraphrases from the New Version (1696/98) by Tate & Brady. But unlike the New Version, Lyte’s aim was not to reproduce the Psalms line-by-line in rhyme. He explained in his preface:

Instead, therefore, of attempting a new version of the Psalms, he has contented himself with endeavouring to condense the leading sentiments of each into a few verses for congregational singing. The modern practice of using only three or four verses at a time would render the great majority of the Psalms, if literally translated, unfit, on the score of length, for public worship; and a few ill-connected verses detached from the rest can scarcely give a more just view of the harmonious whole, than a few bricks can of the building of which they may have formed a part.

The author has therefore simply endeavoured to give the spirit of each Psalm in such a compass as the public taste would tolerate, and to furnish, sometimes, when the length of the original would admit of it, an almost literal translation, sometimes a kind of spiritual paraphrase, and at others even a brief commentary on the whole Psalm.

For his book, he included four paraphrases based on Psalm 103. The most popular of these has been the second, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” given in five stanzas of six lines.

Later editions include brackets around the fourth stanza, indicating the stanza is to be omitted if the entire paraphrase is deemed too long to sing in public worship. In the posthumous editions edited by his son-in-law, the Rev. John Roughton Hogg, the third line of the second stanza was altered to read “Praise him still the same as ever.”

II. Text: Analysis

Lyte’s paraphrase of Psalm 103 is loosely constructed while still representative of the original text. The first stanza roughly covers verses 1–6 of the Psalm. Lyte injected a name into the first line, “King of heaven,” which relates somewhat to verse 11 (“as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy”). The second stanza spans verses 7–12; he translated Moses and the children of Israel into the more general phrase “our fathers in distress,” and focused on the language of grace. The third stanza follows verses 13–14, picking up words like “father” and “frame” from the KJV. The fourth stanza covers verses 15–18, incorporating the flourishing flower and the wind, contrasted against God’s unchanging nature. The fifth stanza, carrying the end of the Psalm, shifts toward heaven and the greater span of his dominion, with an all-encompassing call to praise.

On Lyte’s paraphrase, literary scholar J.R. Watson remarked:

The best example, and the best known [of Lyte’s Psalms], is “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” which involves Lyte’s characteristic patterning and rhetoric, with suspension and inversion: it uses, as the metrical Psalms do, words in an unexpected order, but it does so in such a way as to make that departure from the normal speech order a source of strength rather than weakness. It is a fine hymn, strong in individual lines, in verses, and in the structure of the whole.[1]

Examples of Lyte’s word inversion include “Blows the wind” (4.2), “Dwellers all” (5.4), or “Well our feeble frame he knows” (3.2).

Hymnologist Erik Routley likewise gave Lyte’s work high praise and also expressed what he felt was important about this Psalm:

It is difficult to speak of any psalm without using superlatives. The 148th is obviously the most brilliant, the 23rd equally obviously the tenderest, the 34th the most fortifying, the 100th the most popular, the 90th the most solemn; the 104th the most colourful. What is the special quality of the 103rd? Surely it is that this is the most evangelical of the Psalms; in it we see furthest into the New Testament; in it God looks most like Christ.

“Praise, my soul,” is everything we want a hymn to be. It speaks in simple language that conceals a quite unusual degree of skill and concentration. It speaks clearly, but leaves room for the imagination. It has several arresting lines, yet the whole is homely enough for the edifying of the simplest and the comforting of the most distracted.[2]

Richard J. Stanislaw noted, “The succinct list [of stanza 1]—‘ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven’—covers much of the truth about God’s act of grace in our salvation; there could be no greater reason for ‘my soul’ to praise him.”[3] Structurally, Carl Daw asserted, “Each stanza is held together by the rhyme found in every second line (abcbdb), and the text is given urgency by its trochaic meter.”[4] Albert Edward Bailey saw in this hymn an optimism not typically associated with Lyte’s other hymns, saying, “these words have in them the ring of a man who has climbed out of despair into sunshine and self-forgetfulness.”[5]

Writer Faith Cook explained the significance of the repeated refrain, “Praise Him! Praise Him!”—

The jubilant exhortation to praise God at the close of each verse is not a mere repetition of words, for each final line extols a different aspect of the character of God, whom Lyte acclaims as everlasting, faithful, merciful, changeless, and gracious.[6]

III. Text: Alteration

1. Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861)

When Lyte’s hymn was added to the first edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861 | Fig. 2), the editors made a significant and lasting change from “Praise him! Praise him!” to “Alleluia! Alleluia!”, probably to fit their chosen tune, a shortened version of BENEDICTION by Samuel Webbe (1740–1816). The editors also changed 1.4 from “Who like me his praise should sing?” to “Evermore his praises sing”; they used J.R. Hogg’s “same as ever” at 2.3, made the small change at 3.6 from “as” to “yet,” and in the final stanza included significant changes to lines 1, 3, and 4.

2. Because We Are One People (1974)

In an effort to address modern sensitivities to gendered language, a committee from the Ecumenical Women’s Center in Chicago produced a revision of Lyte’s hymn for their collection Because We Are One People: Songs for Worship (1974). The members of the committee included Sandy Amundsen, Ruth Duck, Susan Del Grande Dixon, Marcie Smith Edgerton, Judy Thomas, and Julie Less Wagstaff. Duck in particular would become known for writing her own hymns, especially dealing with contemporary cultural issues in relation to Christianity.

In the preface to that collection, the members of the committee described their approach:

In general, we wanted to eliminate exclusively male images of God, exclusively female images of the Church and nature, and the use of “generic” man, mankind, etc. We also wanted to avoid militaristic and feudal images.

Their version begins “Praise, my soul, the God of heaven” (Fig. 3). This has been repeated in other hymnals. Carl Daw noted how the revisions here go beyond simply neutering the language: “Some revisions, like 1.4 [“Who like me should sing God’s praise?”], come closer to the original paraphrase, and others, like 3.6 [“All within me praise God’s name”], reclaim biblical language not in the original paraphrase.”[7]

IV. Tune

PRAISE MY SOUL (LAUDA ANIMA MEA)

The tune most closely associated with Lyte’s text is PRAISE MY SOUL, also known as LAUDA ANIMA [MEA], composed by John Goss (1800–1880). Goss had a long career as organist at St. Paul’s Cathedral (1838–1872), composer to the Chapel Royal (1856–1880), and professor of harmony for the Royal Academy of Music (1827–1874). Goss’s original manuscript for this hymn tune—which in 1969 was in the possession of Dr. Chalmers Burns—was dated 15 July 1868. He later composed an alternate harmonization for the fourth stanza, manuscript dated 5 November 1868. This latter manuscript was reprinted in The Musical Times in 1969 (Fig. 4).

Goss’s full setting was first published in The Supplemental Hymn and Tune Book, 3rd ed. with Appendix (1869 | Fig. 5), edited by R. Brown-Borthwick. In this arrangement, composed in D major, each stanza was harmonized differently in an attempt to reflect the message of the text. The publication also included a four-part hymn setting in E major, “as the key of D would be too low for the basses.”

Fig. 5. The Supplemental Hymn and Tune Book, 3rd ed. with Appendix (London: Novello, Ewer & Co., 1869)

Shortly after the tune was first printed in 1869, it was met with glowing praise, and it has continued to be venerated among church musicians. A review in The Musical Times, June 1869, was effusive:

The Appendix consists of a number of settings of favourite hymns by some of the best church musicians of the day. The names of Mr. Goss, Mr. Turle, Mr. E.J. Hopkins, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. J.B. Calkin, and others, offer a sufficient guarantee for the settings being the very best of their kind; and amongst these the contributions of Mr. Goss stand alone and unrivalled. In days like the present, when composers of hymn tunes are so numerous and prolific, it is as difficult (as, perhaps, it is unwise) to attempt to assign any definite place to a composition of this description. Yet we cannot refrain from saying that in our experience we have never come across a hymn tune in which the charm of melody has been more happily seconded by musicianly harmonies, as in the setting of the hymn “Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven,” by Mr. Goss. We repeat, that it is at once the most beautiful and dignified hymn tune which has lately come under our notice; creditable, in the highest degree, to its composer, and of unutterable value as a guide to young writers, who have latterly been so much given to roaming about “at their own sweet will” in the matter of style. The influence for good which such a tune as this cannot fail to produce on modern hymn-writing, is simply incalculable.[8]

English scholar Patrick Little noted the challenge of composing for a trochaic text in which the final syllable of every other line is unstressed:

Goss’s solution to the problem is an original one: the lengthening of the first phrase (only) to five bars, by doubling the values of the last two notes, which in some manner casts its influence over the rest of the tune, to extraordinary effect. If Goss had treated lines three and five in the same way, the tune would move with elephantine lurchings; if he had reduced the last two notes of the first phrase to the regularity of two minims, it would begin to approach the trivial.[9]

Little’s extended analysis of the tune is worth considering in its whole form. He mused, “If Goss’s setting [for Lyte’s text] is available, one wonders why anyone should want anything else.” He also discussed the rarity of a hymnal carrying a hymn tune with varying harmonizations for each stanza, St. Patrick’s hymn being another interesting example.

Regarding the extended opening melodic line of five bars, church music scholar Paul Westermeyer added, “That, plus its engaging contours and subtle but skillful motivic development, accounts for its interest.”[10]

Esteemed English hymn tune scholar Nicholas Temperley described the satisfying effect of hearing the harmonization on a sustained instrument (such as an organ): “The grand effect of the tonic pedal for the final alleluias brings a well-wrought miniature cantata to a satisfying conclusion. The alleluias themselves (originally ‘Praise him! praise him!’) are a clear echo of those in EASTER SONG.”[11]

Goss’s tune eventually replaced BENEDICTION in the 1904 edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern (not the 1875 ed., as is sometimes reported). The alternate setting for the fourth stanza, which apparently had never found its its way into print prior to its display in The Musical Times, was added to the second printing of The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada, released in May 1972.

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
10 August 2020
rev. 30 November 2020

Footnotes:

1. J.R. Watson, The English Hymn (1997), p. 348.

2. Erik Routley, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” Hymns and the Faith (1955), p. 52.

3. Richard J. Stanislaw, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” The Worshiping Church: Worship Leaders’ Edition (1990), no. 25.

4. Carl P. Daw Jr., “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” Glory to God: A Companion (2016), p. 589.

5. Albert Edward Bailey, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” The Gospel in Hymns (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950), p. 171.

6. Faith Cook, “Henry Francis Lyte,” Our Hymn Writers and Their Hymns (Webster, NY: Evangelical Press, 2005), p. 278.

7. Carl P. Daw Jr., “Praise, my soul, the God of heaven,” Glory to God: A Companion (2016), p. 588.

8. “Reviews,” The Musical Times, vol. 14, no. 316 (June 1869), p. 116.

9. Patrick Little, “Two hymn tunes by Sir John Goss,” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 17, no. 2 (April 2003), p. 48.

10. Paul Westermeyer, “PRAISE, MY SOUL,” Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2010), p. 107.

11. Nicholas Temperley, “John Goss,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology: http://www.hymnology.co.uk/j/john-goss

Related Resources:

Albert Edward Bailey, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” The Gospel in Hymns (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950), pp. 170-171.

Erik Routley, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” Hymns and the Faith (London: John Murray, 1955), pp. 51-55.

Stanley L. Osborne, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” If Such Holy Song (Whitby, Ontario: Institute of Church Music, 1976), no. 30.

Frank Colquhoun, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” Hymns that Live (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980), pp. 243-250.

J.R. Watson & Kenneth Trickett, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” Companion to Hymns & Psalms (Peterborough: Methodist Publishing House, 1988), pp. 43-44.

Richard J. Stanislaw & Donald P. Hustad, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” The Worshiping Church: Worship Leaders’ Edition (Carol Stream, IL: Hope, 1990), nos. 25-26.

J.R. Watson, The English Hymn (Oxford: University Press, 1997), pp. 348-350.

Bert Polman, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” Psalter Hymnal Handbook (Grand Rapids: CRC, 1998), pp. 642-643.

J.R. Watson, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” An Annotated Anthology of Hymns (Oxford: University Press, 2002), pp. 271-273.

Patrick Little, “Two hymn tunes by Sir John Goss,” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 17, no. 2 (April 2003), pp. 48-51, including additional commentary by Bernard S. Massey, “Fresh Airs (An Editorial Postscript).”

Paul Westermeyer, “PRAISE, MY SOUL,” Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2010), p. 107.

Leland Ryken, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” 40 Favorite Hymns of the Christian Faith (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2022), pp. 76–79: Amazon

Robert Cottrill, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” Wordwise Hymns (21 Sept. 2012):
https://wordwisehymns.com/2012/09/21/praise-my-soul-the-king-of-heaven/

Carl P. Daw Jr., “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), pp. 588-589.

J.R. Watson, “Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
http://www.hymnology.co.uk/p/praise,-my-soul,-the-king-of-heaven

“Praise, my soul, the King of heaven,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/praise_my_soul_the_king_of_heaven