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.
Break their teeth
Break their teeth
Break their teeth, smash their jaws,
snap their fangs, and chop their claws,
make them vanish down the plug,
stamp them splatty, like a slug,
sweep the wicked all away,
shoot them dead this very day:
show the world there is a Lord to judge the earth!
For the righteous will be glad
at the end of all that's bad,
when the feet of all the good
will be bathed in sinners' blood,
when the Lord of righteousness
shall judge this mess
and the world will know the Lord has come to earth!
Crush their heads, break their crowns,
turn their ups to dreadful downs,
mash their innards into mush,
feed the dogs the gooey slush,
sweep the wicked into pits,
chop them up in little bits:
show the world there is a Lord to judge the earth!
For the righteous will be glad
at the end of all that's bad,
when the feet of all the good
will be bathed in sinners' blood,
when the Lord of righteousness
shall judge this mess
and the world will know the Lord has come to earth!Who may ascend to the Lord's holy place?
Who may go up and stand before his face?
The one who is blameless and pure,
who's never sinned, and that's for sure,
who speaks the truth from his heart,
and from all gossip keeps apart,
with no lies on his tongue,
and never stumbles into wrong,
yes, the one who is bound by his word,
who keeps his oath that God has heard,
who never takes any bribe,
and lies and falsehoods can't abide,
casts no slur on his neighbour,
and no dirtiness will savour:
he who does all these things will live!
But that's not me! Lord, have mercy, Lord, forgive!
From the depths, Lord I cry,
be attentive from on high,
for the records of my faults
would exceed a thousand vaults:
Who could tarry at your throne
if you judged their goings on?
But with you there is forgiveness on the earth!
Your Messiah makes us glad,
if we're good or if we're bad:
all are covered by his blood
for there's no-one truly good,
save the one true righteous Christ
who paid the price
to redeem us sinners from our sin on earth.
Words and music copyright © John Hartley 2008. All rights reserved.
Story behind the song
This song began as a kind of self-imposed challenge: a friend posted a message on CSO (in response to someone else's song) to the effect that there were verses in the scriptures which could never form part of a modern praise song, and he cited Psalm 58:6-11 and Psalm 68:21-23 as instances. So I started wondering whether it was possible to put into verse a kind of "potted theology" of the psalms which begins with righteous anger at evil people but is then moderated into a realization that the singer himself isn't perfect, and finishing with a thanksgiving for redemption and forgiveness. Here's the result. The sequence of bible quotes is:
- Verse 1 - Psalm 58:6-8 & 11b
- Chorus - Psalm 58:10-11
- Verse 2 - Psalm 68:21-23
- Chorus - Psalm 58:10-11
- Bridge - Psalm 15
- Verse 3 & Chorus - Psalm 130 with a little bit of New Testament.
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.