Hymn of the Day: “Oh, That the Lord Would Guide My Ways” ELW 772
Text:
Tune: EVAN (Havergal)

This is part of Psalm 119 as metricized by Isaac Watts, from his Psalms of David (1719). It is a good illustration of how Watts conceived his task, especially with this lengthy psalm of 176 verses. Let Watts speak for himself.

“Psalm CXIX. I have collected and disposed the most usefull Verses of the Psalm under eighteen different Heads, and form'd a Divine Song upon each of them. But the Verses are much transposed to attain some degree of Connexion. In some places among the Words, Law, Commands, Judgments, Testimonies, I have used Gospel, Word, Grace, Truth, Promises, &c. as more agreeable to the New Testament, and the Common Language of Christians, and equally answers the Design of the Psalmist, which was to recommend Holy Scripture.”

This is the "Eleventh Part," which Watts calls "Breathing after Holiness.” He wrote six stanzas. As Lutheran hymnals have tended to do since the Church Book (1868), Evangelical Lutheran Worship prints four stanzas.

William H. Havergal wrote this tune. It was included in his Old Church Psalmody (London, 1847) with Robert Burns's poem "O thou dread power, who reign'st above." Lowell Mason called it EVA in New Carmina Sacra (1850), where, in an altered version as it appears in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, it was the setting for "In mercy, Lord, remember me." In Cantica Laudis (1850) Mason called it EVAN. In Havergal's Psalmody and Century of Chants from Old Church Psalmody (1871) the tune is given at #54 as EVAN I (CM) in a 4/2, not a 3/2 version. A note on page xix indicates it is the first two and last two phrases of Havergal's original melody. The full original is given at #77 as EVAN II (CMD). In the note Havergal says, "'EVAN,' framed by Dr. Lowell Mason of New York ... comprises only part of the original melody. As the American arrangement was a sad estrangement, I have reconstructed the tune after a more correct form. Why it was called 'EVAN' I know not. Still I do not approve of the tune.”

Offertory Anthem: “I Will Bow” Frederick Chatfield (1950)

This is a lovely little gem - simple and as graceful as the Shaker text.

Frederick Chatfield served as Director of Music and Organist of Christ United Methodist Church in Kettering, Ohio, a position he held for thirty years (1986-2016). Mr. Chatfield holds a Bachelor of Music in Organ from New England Conservatory in Boston (1972) and a Master of Arts in Religion (Music and Worship) cum laude from Yale University (1985) where he was named the 1985 Hugh Porter Scholar. His principle organ teachers have included Frank Mulheron, Charles Krigbaum, Miréille Lagacé and Thomas Murray. Mr. Chatfield was a faculty member of the Organ Academy of the American Guild of Organists, Dayton chapter and is a published composer. One of his great enjoyments is his 1982 BMW R100RS motorcycle which he restored in the spring of 2006.

I will bow and be simple, I will bow and be free,
I will bow and be humble, yea, bow like the willow tree.

I will bow, this is the token, I will wear the easy yoke,
I will bow and be broken, yea, I'll fall upon the rock.

Opening Voluntary: “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” Lani Smith

Anthony J. Showalter received letters from two friends who had lost their wives about the same time. He wrote back to express his sympathy, and included a verse of Scripture: “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27 KJV). As he thought about that text, he wrote the music and refrain to this hymn. He asked Elisha Hoffman to write the stanzas. The hymn was first published in 1887 in The Glad Evangel for Revival, Camp, and Evangelistic Meetings, for which Showalter was an editor.

Elisha Hoffman (1839-1929) after graduating from Union Seminary in Pennsylvania was ordained in 1868. As a minister he was appointed to the circuit in Napoleon, Ohio in 1872. He worked with the Evangelical Association's publishing arm in Cleveland for eleven years. He served in many chapels and churches in Cleveland and in Grafton in the 1880s, among them Bethel Home for Sailors and Seamen, Chestnut Ridge Union Chapel, Grace Congregational Church and Rockport Congregational Church. In his lifetime he wrote more than 2,000 gospel songs including"Leaning on the everlasting arms" (1894).

Closing Voluntary: “Jubilate” Roy Douglas (1907-2015)

This is an original work for organ which is, as the title suggests, jubilant!

Richard Roy Douglas, better known as Roy Douglas, was an English composer, pianist and arranger. He worked as musical assistant to Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton, and Richard Addinsell, made well-known orchestrations of works such as Les Sylphides (the ballet, music based on piano pieces by Chopin) and Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto, and wrote a quantity of original music.