Charles Wesley’s hymn Love divine, all loves excelling is the choice of not one but three listeners in this week’s programme of Summer Hymn Requests. You can also hear Honour the dead, Shirley Murray’s hymn for Anzac Day, and a beautiful a cappella rendition by the Tapestry Chamber Singers of It is well with my soul.
Interior detail, St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne Photo: Robyn Jaquiery
SONG: LOVE DIVINE, ALL LOVES EXCELLING
Artist: Choir of Westminster Abbey, James O’Donnell (dir), Robert Quinney (organ)
Words/Music: Charles Wesley/William Penfro Rowlands
Recording: Hyperion 702801
Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven, to earth come down,
fix in us thy humble dwelling;
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesu, thou art all compassion;
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation;
enter every trembling heart.
Come, Almighty, to deliver;
let us all thy life receive;
suddenly return, and never,
nevermore thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
serve thee as thy hosts above,
pray, and praise thee without ceasing,
glory in thy perfect love.
Finish then thy new creation;
pure and spotless let us be;
let us see thy great salvation
perfectly restored in thee:
changed from glory into glory,
till in heaven we take our place,
till we cast our crowns before thee,
lost in wonder, love, and praise.
SONG: MY FAITH LOOKS UP TO THEE
Artist: Norwich Cathedral Choir
Words/Music: Ray Palmer/John Mason
Recording: Priory PRCD 705
My faith looks up to thee,
thou Lamb of Calvary,
Saviour divine!
Now hear me while I pray;
take all my guilt away;
O let me from this day
be wholly thine!
May thy rich grace impart
strength to my fainting heart,
my zeal inspire;
as thou hast died for me,
O may my love to thee
pure, warm, and changeless be,
a living fire!
While life’s dark maze I tread
and griefs around me spread,
be thou my guide;
bid darkness turn to day;
wipe sorrow’s tears away;
nor let me ever stray
from thee aside.
When ends life’s transient dream,
when death’s cold, sullen stream
shall o’er me roll;
blest Savior, then, in love,
fear and distrust remove;
O bear me safe above,
a ransomed soul!
SONG: O LOVE OF GOD, HOW STRONG AND TRUE
Artist: Choir of All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Beverly Hills
Words/Music: Horatius Bonar/Calvin Hampton
Recording: Gothic 349074
O love of God, how strong and true!
Eternal, and yet ever new;
Uncomprehended and unbought,
Beyond all knowledge and all thought.
O wide-embracing, wondrous love!
We read thee in the sky above,
We read thee in the earth below,
In seas that swell, and streams that flow.
We read thee best in Him who came
To bear for us the cross of shame;
Sent by the Father from on high,
Our life to live, our death to die.
We read thy power to bless and save,
E'en in the darkness of the grave;
Still more in resurrection light
We read the fullness of thy might.
SONG: HONOUR THE DEAD
Artist: Viva Voce, John Rosser (dir), Michael Bell (organ)
Words/Music: Shirley Murray/Colin Gibson
Recording: NZ Hymnbook Trust 941300
Honour the dead, our country's fighting brave,
honour our children left in foreign grave,
where poppies blow and sorrow seeds her flowers,
honour the crosses marked forever ours.
Weep for the places ravaged by our blood,
weep for the young bones buried in the mud,
weep for the powers of violence and greed,
weep for the deals done in the name of need.
Honour the brave whose conscience was their call,
answered no bugle, went against the wall,
suffered in prisons of contempt and shame,
branded as cowards, in our country's name.
Weep for the waste of all that might have been,
weep for the cost that war has made obscene,
weep for the homes that ache with human pain,
weep that we ever sanction war again.
Honour the dream for which our nation bled,
held now in trust to justify the dead,
honour their vision on this solemn day:
peace known in freedom, peace the only way.
SONG: GOD IS WORKING HIS PURPOSE OUT
Artist: Choir of Manchester Cathedral
Words/Music: Ainger/Kingham
Recording: Priory PRCD 718
God is working his purpose out as year succeeds to year:
God is working his purpose out, and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.
Let us go forth in the strength of God, with the banner of Christ unfurled,
that the light of the glorious gospel of truth may shine throughout the world:
let us all fight with sorrow and sin, to set their captives free,
that earth may be filled with the glory of God,
as the waters cover the sea.
All that we do can have no worth, unless God bless the deed;
vainly we hope for the harvest-tide, till God gives life to the seed;
yet nearer and nearer draws the time, the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.
SONG: WHEN PEACE LIKE A RIVER (IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL)
Artist: Tapestry Chamber Singers
Words/Music: Horatio Spafford/Philip Bliss
Recording: Tapestry Chamber Singers 2022
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
"It is well, it is well with my soul."
Refrain:
It is well (it is well)
with my soul (with my soul);
it is well, it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control:
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and has shed his own blood for my soul.
Refrain:
O Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
the trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend;
even so, it is well with my soul.
Refrain:
SONG: NOW THANK WE ALL OUR GOD
Artist: Huddersfield Choral Society
Words/Music: Martin Rinkart trans Catherine Winkworth/Johan Cruger
Recording: Signum Records 2006
Now thank we all our God
with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done,
in whom his world rejoices;
who from our mothers' arms
has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
with ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us,
to keep us in his grace,
and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ills
of this world in the next.
All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given,
the Son and Spirit blest,
who reign in highest heaven
the one eternal God,
whom heaven and earth adore;
for thus it was, is now,
and shall be evermore.
