The Diocesan Dialogue
Current Issue
May 2008

The Story of a Hymn

We frequently include insights into our liturgy, services, and traditions in the Dialogue, so that we can better understand our faith journey in the Episcopal Church. This month, we reprinted Cherie Wittwer's article about the story of a hymn from the Church of the Good Shepherd's The Call.

"All people that on Earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice: him serve with mirth, his praise forth tell, come ye before him and rejoice." #377

The St. Peter's Choir of Clearfield sings in the tradition of Reformers such as Martin Luther who strongly supported hymns and carols in services.

Disagreements about church music are nothing new. When the Reformation swept across Europe in the 1500s, there was a division among Protestants concerning congregational singing. Some of the Reformers, such as Martin Luther of Germany, advocated singing hymns and carols. Others, such as John Calvin of Geneva, thought that only the Psalms of David should be sung.

Calvin was a fierce advocate for the use of metrical versions of the Psalms. Like Augustine, he believed that a person cannot "sing things worthy of God, unless he has received them from Him," and that there are "no better songs nor more appropriate to the purpose than the Psalms of David, which the Holy Spirit made and spoke through him."

In 1551, a hymnbook of Psalms was published in Geneva. In it, Psalm 134 was set to a majestic and beautiful melody composed (or adapted) by Louis Bourgeois.

Ten years later, another edition of the Psalter was published and this time the same majestic, stirring tune was used with the words to Psalm 100 as versified by Rev. William Kethe, who had fled his native Scotland during the persecutions of Queen Mary.

Ever since the publication of the 1561 hymnal, this tune has been called "The Old 100th" because of its association with Psalm 100. Christians today know it as the melody to which the Doxology is typically sung ("Praise God from whom all blessings flow"), but for five-hundred years, it has been more closely associated with William Dethe's rendition of Psalm 100.

Cherie Wittwer is a member of the Diocesan Liturgy and Music Committee

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