Our God, Our Help in Ages Past

Our God, Our Help in Ages Past
Isaac Watts
Genre	Hymn
Written	1708
Text	Isaac Watts
Based on	Psalm 90
Meter	8.6.8.6 (C.M.)
Melody	"St. Anne" by William Croft

"Our God, Our Help in Ages Past" is a hymn by Isaac Watts and paraphrases the 90th Psalm of the Book of Psalms. It originally consisted of nine stanzas; however, in present usage the even-numbered stanzas other than the second stanza are commonly omitted to leave a total of six (Methodist books also include the original sixth stanza to leave a total of seven). In 1738, John Wesley in his hymnal, Psalms and Hymns, changed the first line of the text from "Our God" to "O God." Both Watts' wording and Wesley's rewording remain in current use.

History

The hymn was originally part of The Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament, published by Watts in 1719. In this book he paraphrased in Christian verse the entire psalter with the exception of twelve Psalms which he felt were unsuited for Christian usage.

The hymn is often sung as part of the remembrance day service in Canada and festive occasions in England.

The hymn tune "St. Anne" (common metre 86.86) to which the text is most often sung was composed by William Croft in 1708 whilst he was the organist of the church of St Anne, Soho: hence the name of the tune. It first appeared anonymously in the Supplement to the New Version of the Psalms, 6th edition in 1708. It was originally intended to be used with a version of Psalm 62. It was not until sometime later when set to Watts' text that the tune gained recognition.

Later composers subsequently incorporated the tune in their own works. For example, George Handel used the tune in an anthem entitled, "O Praise the Lord". J. S. Bach's Fugue in E-flat major BWV 552 is often called the "St. Anne" in the English speaking world, because of the similarity of its subject to the first line of the hymn tune, though there is some debate as to whether Bach used the actual tune after hearing it, or coincidentally created himself the very similar tune used as the fugual theme. Young Bach's inspirator and mentor Dieterich Buxtehude, churchadministrator and organist of St.Mary's in Lübeck in North-Germany, used the same first line of the hymn tune as theme for the (first) fugue of his Praeludium-pedaliter in E-major for organ.

	Prelude and Fugue in E-flat major – Fugue
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Arthur Sullivan uses the tune in the first and last sections of his Festival Te Deum, first in a relatively standard setting, but eventually pairing it with a military march accompaniment. The American composer Carl Ruggles (1876–1971) used the text in his last composition, "Exaltation" (for Brass, Chorus, and Organ) in 1958, in memory of his wife Charlotte who had died the previous year. The hymn and words are also featured in Vaughan Williams's anthem "Lord, thou hast been our refuge", using both the Book of Common Prayer's words and those of Watts. Brother Colin Smith also arranged a setting of this hymn.^[1]

Notable uses

• 14 April 1912 – according to passenger Archibald Gracie IV, it was the last anthem that first-class passengers sang at the Mass, presided by the Captain Edward John Smith, which took place on the morning before the RMS Titanic sank.^[2]
• 1941 – on board HMS Prince of Wales at a religious service attended by Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt as part of the conference creating the Atlantic Charter.^[3]
• H. G. Wells quotes the seventh stanza of the hymn in the first chapter – "The End Closes in upon Mind" – of the very last of the 146 books he published during his lifetime, the bleak Mind at the End of its Tether (1945), and adds his own comment: "But hitherto other sons have appeared, and now only does life pass plainly into a phase of complete finality, so that one can apprehend and anticipate its end."
• Bing Crosby included the hymn in his album Beloved Hymns (1951).
• The song was sung at the funeral of Winston Churchill.
• It is the University Anthem of the University of California, Berkeley.
• It is also the School hymn for King Edward VI School, Southampton, which Isaac Watts himself attended, the peal of the Southampton Civic Centre clock tower and The Laidlaw Memorial School and Junior College, Ketti.
• It is the official college hymn for Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Wooster School in Danbury, Connecticut, Scottish Church College, Kolkata and St. Stephen's College, Delhi; and is sung at formal occasions such as baccalaureate and commencement exercises.
• It is the foundational hymn of the Nisga'a Nation.
• It is a prominent hymn in the Hymn Book of The Bishop's School, Pune. Repeatedly sung by the late Principal Mr. B. W. Roberts at the morning assemblies.
• The hymn tune is employed prominently in John Addison's Academy Award-winning score for the 1963 movie Tom Jones.
• In Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall the prisoners communicate the death of Prendergast, bypassing a rule of silence by amending the words of the hymn in chapel.^[4]
• The lines "Time, like an ever rolling stream,Bears all its sons away;They fly, forgotten, as a dream Dies at the opening day" are the first lines of the first song "Bath" on The Divine Comedy album Promenade.
• The fifth stanza of this hymn forms the epigraph for the novel The Shadow of the Torturer by the American science-fiction writer Gene Wolfe.
• It is also the school anthem of the Boys High School, Allahabad, India, now known as the Boys High School & College, originally established in 1822 to cater to the education of European children in British India.
• In wondering "what relationship this present reality bears to an ultimate reality," author Marilynne Robinson quotes the, "Time, like an ever-rolling stream," stanza in her 2004 book, "Gilead".
• On 10 November 1986 it was sung at the launch meeting of Ulster loyalist paramilitary group Ulster Resistance, a gathering of over 2,000 people at Ulster Hall, Belfast, where the hymn was described as "Ulster's battle hymn".^[5]
• It was the processional hymn at the funeral of US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on February 20, 2016.

Lyrics

Italicised lyrics denote verses not commonly in current use.

Thy Word commands our flesh to dust,

Return, ye sons of men:

All nations rose from earth at first,

And turn to earth again.^[8]

The busy tribes of flesh and blood,

With all their lives and cares,

Are carried downwards by the flood,

And lost in following years.^[8]

Like flowery fields the nations stand

Pleased with the morning light;

The flowers beneath the mower’s hand

Lie withering ere ‘tis night.^[8]

References

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Our God, Our Help in Ages Past

• Text, MIDI, and piano score from HymnSite.com