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.
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens,
praise him in his holy heights!
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, all his angels,
sun and moon and shining lights.
Praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded you,
brought you forth into being, with a task to do:
to declare how he's everlasting, faithful and true!
Praise the name of the Lord our God!
Praise the Lord,
all you depths of the ocean,
mountain tops and clouds and snow.
Praise the Lord,
all you whirlpools in motion,
lightning strikes and winds that blow.
Praise the name of the Lord who set you in your place,
show his glory and might that we might glimpse his face,
speak to us of his everlasting power and grace!
Praise the name of the Lord our God!
Praise the Lord,
all you fruit trees and cedars,
animals and flying birds.
Praise the Lord,
all you princes and leaders,
labourers and smiths of words.
Praise the name of the Lord who made all earthly things:
he is high and exalted far above all kings,
he's the praise of his saints: the heart that's close to him sings!
Praise the name of the Lord our God!
Words copyright © John Hartley 2009. All rights reserved.
Based on Psalm 148.
Story behind the song
Psalm 148 is basically a list of the different items of God's creation which can join in praising him. It has a fairly obvious verse structure, in that v1-6 form the first verse, v7-12 form the second verse, and v13-14 is a kind of "bridge" at the end (with the whole thing being topped and tailed by the "Praise the Lord" tag). So this is a basic attempt to set it in metrical form: I've kept the same progression (from heavenly bodies to topography and weather, and then plants, animals and people), but I've divided up the verses slightly differently and topped and tailed each verse with the tag.
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.