“Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul” (Trinity Hymnal 57)

Hymn of the Month, January 2016
Researched and written by Rev. Nicholas Davelaar

Many of the hymns we sing are gems of wisdom, guidance, and admonition, drawn from God’s Word and set to music so that the word of Christ might dwell in us richly. Let’s take some time to dig into another of these this month, “Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul.”
 
History: The hymn’s text
 
As we noted, last month’s hymn—“Of the Father’s Love Begotten”—is one of the oldest hymns in the Trinity Hymnal (348 A.D.). That said, it is far from the oldest song we sing. Our hymnal contains plenty of songs that are older, even more than a thousand years older. Most of these songs, such as our current hymn of the month, come from the book of Psalms.

Consequently, we know quite a bit about the text of “Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul.” Granted, we don’t know who put this psalm into verse form—no name is given in the 1912 Psalter, where it was first published, nor in the 1871 Book of Psalms, which contained an earlier version. However, the words of this song are none other than those of Psalm 146. Our hymn of the month is an ancient but well-known song, one of the inspired songs of God’s people, versified and set to music so that we too might sing this psalm of praise to God.
 
History: The hymn’s tune
 
This text has been sung to a handful of different tunes over the past century. The tune employed in the Trinity Hymnal was composed by Lowell Mason (1792-1872).

Mason, an American church musician, composed or arranged over 1600 hymn tunes during his lifetime. Our Trinity Hymnal reflects that. Mason is easily the most represented musician in our hymnal, with nearly 4% of its songs set to his tunes, such as his arrangement of “Joy to the World.” With “Joy to the World,” Mason took a melody by Handel and arranged it to make the tune that is now inseparable from the words penned by Isaac Watts. In “Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul,” Mason did much the same thing: he took the melody of Gregorian chant and arranged it to produce the simple, jubilant tune we now sing.

All that noted, Mason left a lasting influence on church music—especially church music in the United States—that extends far beyond the hymn tunes we still sing. Mason’s hymn tunes were part of a larger and ultimately quite successful effort to improve congregational singing in 19th century America. Some people today argue that he did not improve congregational singing so much as destroy other music traditions, but his promotion of choral singing and music programs in schools is indisputable. In fact, some consider him the first important music educator in the United States, while others credit him with popularizing European classical music here. In that light, even his critics will agree that Mason left a mark on church music in the United States, as well as music more generally in this country.
 
History drawn from the Psalter Hymnal Handbook, and Wikipedia.com.
 
Overview
 
As the title suggests, “Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul” is a song of praise to God. In it we praise God specifically for his trustworthiness and encourage ourselves and each another to put our trust in him.

Verse 1
Hallelujah, praise Jehovah,
O my soul, Jehovah praise;
I will sing the glorious praises
of my God through all my days.
Put no confidence in princes,
nor for help on man depend;
he shall die, to dust returning,
and his purposes shall end.
 
This opening verse overlaps with Psalm 146:1-4. In it we call upon our soul to sing God’s praise, and in almost the same breath, commit ourselves to doing so all our days. Our focus then shifts in the final half of the verse; we’ll consider that in our observations on the second verse.
 
Verse 2
Happy is the man that chooses
Israel's God to be his aid;
he is blessed whose hope of blessing
on the Lord his God is stayed.
Heav'n and earth the Lord created,
seas and all that they contain;
he delivers from oppression,
righteousness he will maintain.
 
Here we continue the thought began in the final lines of the previous verse, namely that God alone is worthy of our confidence, as opposed to mere humans. God can and does help us. Psalm 146:5-7 makes clear that he is the one who created heaven and earth, the seas and all that they contain. Furthermore, he is the one who can and does right wrongs. To whom else shall we turn in times of trouble? In whom else should we trust?

Verse 3
Food he daily gives the hungry,
sets the mourning prisoner free,
raises those bowed down with anguish,
makes the sightless eye to see.
Well Jehovah loves the righteous,
and the stranger he befriends,
helps the fatherless and widow,
judgment on the wicked sends.
 
This third verse continues to recount God’s trustworthiness as the one who is good and just in all his dealings with his people. He does not turn a deaf ear toward the needs of his people, nor the injustices they experience, but instead cares for them in ways that are sometimes truly miraculous. In Psalm 146:7-9 the psalmist attests to that, and in this verse we join him in acknowledging that.
 
Verse 4
Hallelujah, praise Jehovah,
O my soul, Jehovah praise;
I will sing the glorious praises
of my God through all my days.
Over all God reigns forever,
through all ages he is King;
unto him, your God, O Zion,
joyful hallelujahs sing.
 
We begin to wrap up our song much as we began it, namely with the words of praise from Psalm 146:1-2. However, we finish this verse with the declaration of Psalm 146:10; we close by declaring with the psalmist that our God reigns and will do so forever. He is our king, and so we will trust him and sing his praise. In fact, we see that even more clearly in the wake of the first coming, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. Thus we may and perhaps do sing this with even more gusto than did the psalmist and the Israelites of old.
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We see in Christ Jesus that God is faithful beyond faithful to his promises, and good beyond good to his people. Consequently, will you trust in him and sing his praise? It’s one thing to sing this, but quite another to do it in the midst of everyday life. Will you trust in him and praise his name in the midst of your relationships and with your time and the activities you engage in from one moment to the next?