“I will sing to the Lord as long as I live, / And praise Thy great name while I have my being.” …one of several sublime moments in “O Lord God,” an anthem by Russian composer, Pavel Chesnokov. In the mid-1970s, it was concert-closing music for the Luther College Nordic Choir, conducted by Mitchell County native, legendary Weston Noble. I know now what I didn’t know then. Chesnokov’s magnificent “long as I live” line is from Psalm 104:34, a psalm possibly written by David, scholars are uncertain.
What IS certain is that Psalm 104 inspired, prompted, and motivated a significant number of poets and lyricists. In addition to Chesnokov, a “drawing-on-104” list includes a diverse cast: Sir Robert Grant, Pharaoh Akhenaten (father of King Tutankhamen), Saint Francis of Assisi, Cecil Frances Alexander, and Bob Dylan. Incredible variety; details below.
Long before knowing anything about these writers, faithful parents dutifully ensured my weekly worship attendance at our nearby church. A standard opening hymn was “O Worship the King”; words and melody were both imprinted on my soul (as sung to the “Hanover” tune). Today I’m focused on the poetry of this hymn, written by Sir Robert Grant, (1779-1838). Robert’s father, Charles, an influential British politician, worked with William Wilberforce, emancipating African slaves in the British Empire. Robert’s career included service in Parliament before eventually being knighted and named Governor of Bombay (now Mumbai).
Like most kids attending church, I wasn’t especially attentive, although I generally liked the singing part. Perhaps I was intrigued by nimble intervals in the Hanover tune, although Grant’s soaring rhetoric resonated with me even more. The first stanza employs the monarchy as a metaphor: “Our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days, / Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.” Additional drama in stanza two: “O tell of his might, O sing of his grace, / Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space. / His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form, / And dark is his path on the wings of the storm.”
Grant creatively paraphrased Psalm 104, verses 1–13 and 24–33. Erik Routley (1917-1982) often considered last century’s finest hymnologist, shares my lofty opinion: “For sheer literary grace and beauty, one of the six* finest hymns in the language. Combining effortless energy, high-spirited innocence, and touch of superb dignity (in) two towering lines: ‘Pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise’ (and) ‘O measureless might, ineffable love.’”
So, who else was inspired by Psalm 104? AND, importantly, who may have inspired the psalmist? Remarkable similarities exist between Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten’s “Great Hymn of the Aten” and Psalm 104, including shared motifs presented in the same order. Since the Great Hymn predates the Psalms, noted American Egyptologist James Henry Breasted (1865-1935) writes, “this (is) a clear case of borrowing by one of the biblical authors”… a topic more complex than can be addressed in this ramble.
Saint Francis’s hymn, “All Creatures of our God and King,” draws on imagery in Psalm 104. Mrs. Alexander’s “All Things Bright and Beautiful” was inspired by the psalmist. Both lyrics and meter in Bob Dylan’s folksong “When the Ship Comes In” are similar to the first six stanzas of Akhenaten’s Great Hymn. Dylan and Joan Baez performed “Ship” at the 1963 March on Washington.
Now, catching our breath after this whirlwind journey, let’s conclude with three more stanzas of Robert Grant’s majestic lyrics: “The earth with its store of wonders untold, / Almighty, thy power hath founded of old; / Hath ‘stablished it fast by a changeless decree, / And round it hath cast, like a mantle, the sea. // Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail, / In thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail; / Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end / Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend! // O measureless Might! Ineffable Love! / While angels delight to hymn thee above, / The humbler creation, though feeble their lays, / With true adoration shall sing to thy praise.”
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*-I sought Routley’s five other hymns… without success.
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I’m pleased to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. These are my colleagues: