LORD, to You My Soul Is Lifted

Performance Notes:

• For performance notes on this song, see page 1079 of Psalms for All Seasons: A Complete Psalter for Worship.
• The following article is taken from the Psalter Hymnal Handbook.

Text Information:

A prayer for God's mercies when suffering affliction for sins and when enemies seize the opportunity to attack.

Scripture References:
st. 1 = vv. 1-7
st. 2 = vv.8-15
st. 3 = vv. 16-22

Enfeebled and distracted by illness or some other affliction (vv. 16¬-18), the psalmist in his distress recognizes the hand of God. But the affliction has also emboldened enemies to take advantage of the psalmist's weakened condition (v. 19), perhaps seeking to discredit him publicly through mischievous slander. In such traits, the psalmist encourages us also to humbly ask God for forgiveness and for Instruction and guidance into right ways (st. 1), to appeal to God's covenant faithfulness toward those who are faithful (st. 2), and to plead for deliverance from affliction and for relief from the opportunistic attacks of enemies (st. 3). Stanley Marvin Wiersma (b. Orange City, IA, 1930; d. Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 1986) versified Psalm 25 in 1980 for the Psalter Hymnal.

Wiersma was a poet and professor of English at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, from 1959 until his sudden death in 1986. He attended Calvin as an under¬graduate and received a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1959. His love for the Genevan psalms is reflected in the two books of poetry for which he is most widely known: Purpaleanie and Other Permutations (1978) and Style and Class (1982), both written under the pseudonym Sietze Buning. He also wrote More Than the Ear Discovers: God in the Plays of Christopher Fry and translated many Dutch poems and hymn texts into English, including the children's hymns published in All Will Be New (1982).

Liturgical Use
When personal or communal distress forces the Christian to turn to a gracious Lord–especially when the distress appears to discredit the church.

Tune Information:

Louis Bourgeois's GENEVAN 25 was first published in the 1551 edition of the Genevan Psalter. Howard Slenk harmonized the tune in 1985 for the Psalter Hymnal. One of the most beautifully constructed Genevan tunes, 25 is noted especially for its rhythmic interest and form (AABC). Like many melodies of its time, the rhythmic units move easily between groupings of two and three quarter-notes. For example, the first phrase is grouped 3+2+3+2+2; the first note of each group carries the stressed syllable of the text. Though set to a reflective text, the music should not be sung too slowly; feel the half note as the basic pulse.

Other Resources:

• Visit hymnary.org for more information on this song and additional resources.