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.
May God be merciful to us
May God be merciful to us
May God be merciful to us and bless us,
and make his face shine upon us all our days,
so all the world may come to know his goodness,
and all the nations may appreciate his ways.
May the peoples praise you!
May the peoples bless you!
May the whole world be filled with praise!
May all the nations of the earth be joyful,
and sing for gladness, and bless God's holy name:
because his justice has flowed down like rivers,
and his forbearance to all nations is the same.
May the peoples praise you!
May the peoples bless you!
May the whole world be filled with praise!
Then shall the wilderness become a garden,
and be restored, and be fruitful once again:
and all the peoples shall find peace and pardon
as all the nations love and fear God's holy name.
Words and tune copyright © John Hartley 2008.
Based on Psalm 67
Story behind the song
This is a fairly straightforward attempt to set Psalm 67 as a metrical psalm to music. The obvious characteristic of the psalm's structure is the chorus which comes in verses 3 and 5, and the obvious theological point it is making is that God's blessing of us (his chosen people) is supposed to be a channel to others coming to recognise him too, so that his blessing will flow to everyone. And these were the features I was trying to bring out in this setting.
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.