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.
O come, let us sing out
O come, let us sing out (Psalm 95)
O come, let us sing out to the Lord.
Let us rejoice in the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his face,
thank him for his grace,
cry out and celebrate,
let us dance and sing,
for the Lord is king,
for the Lord our God is great.
The mountains and summits are the Lord's,
and all the depths of the seas and their foundations.
Let us draw near to his throne,
worship him alone,
call on his holy name;
let us kneel and bow,
come before him now,
give him honour and acclaim.
When you hear his voice today,
don't deny the truths he'll say:
don't be hardened in your heart,
or your world will come apart!
Your ancestors put the Lord God to the test:
a whole generation cut off from his rest.
All judgements and verdicts are the Lord's,
and his commandments are right for all the nations.
Let us hear his voice today,
listen and obey,
focus and understand:
for we are his sheep,
he will safely keep
all the people of his hand.
Words and tune copyright © John Hartley 2007.
Based on Psalm 95.
Story behind the song
Psalm 95, the Venite ("O come") has a somewhat chequered history in Anglican worship. It was set as an opening canticle for Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. But the compilers of the Alternative Services Book 1980 evidently felt that verses 8-11, which challenge the readers about not being hard-hearted when hearing God's word, were out of keeping with a canticle to introduce worship - so they excised that bit and tacked on a bit of Psalm 96 instead. The latest Common Worship publication reverts to the whole psalm, but says the end bit may be omitted.
And it's true that the end bit has a different feel - so I wanted to write a lyric which would point up this difference. We need to be alerted to the fact that there is a slight "sting in the tail" about rushing into God's presence - he expects us to pay attention to what he says. And yet the words are meant as an exhortation rather than a condemnation - so I wanted to finish by returning to the positive note of encouragement of the earlier part of the psalm.
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.