This page is provided so that you can hear the tunes of items which we use in church. Mostly they are written by the vicar. Please note that they are copyright - we are very happy to give permission to you to use them, but we would like to hear about it. Please include any use on your Christian Copyright Licence returns.
Down this page:
- the words,
- the story,
- the sheet music,
- media player.
Attention, heavens!
Attention, heavens!
Attend, O heavens, and hear me speak:
I will proclaim the Lord we trust.
A faithful God, who sustains the weak:
he is the Rock,
and none shall mock,
for all his ways are right and just.
Remember how in the days of old,
he gave the nations places to dwell.
He shielded Judah in deserts cold.
He fed and cared,
and he prepared
a promised land for Israel.
His chosen people rebelled and turned,
making him angry, hiding his face:
they worshipped idols, the Rock they spurned.
In exile they
were cast away.
Will they return and find his grace?
The Lord our God is the judge supreme.
His is the power of punishment.
He will establish his just regime.
His flashing sword
is sin's reward,
but he forgives when we repent.
Words and tune copyright © John Hartley 2007.
Story behind the song
This song arose from a request on the COIN (Christians on the Internet) music e-mail discussion list, for metrical canticles suitable for singing as part of the Easter Vigil. The "Song of Miriam and Moses" is one of them. You can find the full scheme by following this link.
As set out in the "Lent - Holy Week - Easter" book (p256) this canticle consists of only the first four verses of Deuteronomy 32 ... and seeing as the first two verses are preamble, it only has two verses of substance in it. But the whole canticle is the story of God choosing Israel, Israel's desertion and exile, and (at the end) the promise of atonement - a moving chapter in its entirety, and completely different from the triviality of stopping after the first four verses.
So there is a version of just the first four verses here, but I felt the need to compose something more substantial, and here it is.
I'm grateful to friends on the Christian Songwriting Organisation e-mail list for help with both the words and the music of this song. So far as I know the tune is original ... but I might be wrong, and it might be largely influenced by something I've heard. If you recognise it from elsewhere, please let me know so that I can acknowledge it properly.
John Hartley.
Windows Media Player. When you click the left-hand "play" button your computer should have started to play the tune. If it didn't, you might be able to get the tune by clicking here, or by right-clicking the link, choosing "save target as", saving it onto your computer, and then opening it with a music-playing program.
Please remember that a midi file of a tune isn't supposed to be a state-of-the-art musical arrangement - it is only supposed to give a basic idea of how the tune goes. Any reasonable organist / keyboard player / music group could make it sound far better.