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.
Lord our God, you are excellent
Lord our God, you are excellent
Lord our God, you are excellent
and your glory is above the sky.
When I think of the things you've made:
the moon and the stars,
then I wonder why:
Why are you bothered with people?
What do we matter to you?
Why do you care for us children
and take notice of what we do?
Lord our God, you made ev'rything,
and you put it in its proper place:
I can see how it's wonderful,
the lips that you made
I will use for your praise.
You made us lower than angels,
but we are special to you,
we have to care for the planet,
so the earth can be fruitful too.
Lord our God, you are excellent,
and your glory is above the sky!
Lord our God, you are excellent,
I will lift my voice
and worship you, Lord Most High.
Words and tune copyright © John Hartley 2007.
Based on Psalm 8.
Story behind the song
The basics of this song came to me while I was preparing an act of collective worship for a local primary school: I wanted to construct a picture of the world and our place in it, based on Psalm 8. For a while I had an idea that I would try to engage the children in a creative writing exercise, but eventually as I realized that I didn't really know how to do this, I decided to write the song nonetheless and use it in worship.
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.