495

Come, All You People, Praise Our God

Full Text

1 Come, all you people, praise our God
and tell his glorious works abroad,
who holds our souls in life;
who never lets our feet be moved
and, though our faith has often proved,
upholds us in the strife.

2 We come with offerings to God's house,
and here we pay the solemn vows
we uttered in distress;
to him our all we dedicate,
to him we wholly consecrate
the lives his mercies bless.

3 Come, listen, all who fear the Lord,
while I with grateful heart record
what God has done for me;
I cried to him in deep distress,
and now his wondrous grace I bless,
for he has set me free.

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Scripture References

Thematically related:

Further Reflections on Scripture References

Though this versification is based on Psalm 66:8-20, it doesn’t incorporate the strong literary images of the biblical text (66). Still, “Come, All You People” does pick up significant themes common to praise psalms: praise God for deliverance (st.1), fulfillment of vows and dedication to God’s service (st.2), and public testimony to God’s salvation and care (st.3). Stanzas 1 and 2 use the plural case, calling all people to communal and consecrated worship of God, and stanza 3 uses the singular, relating the psalmist’s personal experience with God for the benefit of “all who fear the Lord.”

Confessions and Statements of Faith References

Further Reflections on Confessions and Statements of Faith References

In a world with many threats and enemies, we find hope and security in his fatherly care. Both Belgic Confession and Heidelberg Catechism put significant focus on the Providence of God and the care God provides for us. Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 9, Question and Answer 26 professes that he “will provide whatever I need for body and soul” and that we are “completely in his hand.” In Belgic Confession, Article 13 professes that he “watches over us with fatherly care.”

495

Come, All You People, Praise Our God

Additional Prayers

God of life and transformation,
you have broken into the deathly silence of our sin
and restored your song of life and triumph.
By the power of your Spirit, inspire us to shout your praise with joy
and to tell of the wonderful things you have done, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
— Psalms for All Seasons (http://www.psalmsforallseasons.org)
495

Come, All You People, Praise Our God

Tune Information

Name
ADOWA
Key
G Major
Meter
8.8.6 D

Recordings

495

Come, All You People, Praise Our God

Hymn Story/Background

Though this versification is based on Psalm 66:8-20, it doesn’t incorporate the strong literary images of the biblical text (66). Still, “Come, All You People” does pick up significant themes common to praise psalms: praise God for deliverance (st.1), fulfillment of vows and dedication to God’s service (st.2), and public testimony to God’s salvation and care (st.3). Stanzas 1 and 2 use the plural case, calling all people to communal and consecrated worship of God, and stanza 3 uses the singular, relating the psalmist’s personal experience with God for the benefit of “all who fear the Lord.”
 
The versification (altered) is from the 1912 Psalter and originally began with the words “Come, all ye people, bless our God.”
 
ADOWA was composed by Charles H. Gabriel, the noted gospel songwriter, during the Billy Sunday-Homer Rodeheaver evangelistic crusades of the 1910s, and was published with this text in the 1912 Psalter. Sing the tune in two very long phrases.
— Bert Polman

Author Information

The 1912 Psalter was the first ecumenical psalter published in the United States and the most widely used metrical psalter of the twentieth century in North America.  The United Presbyterian Church invited all other Reformed and Presbyterian denominations to join them in the effort to provide a new versifications of the psalms; six Presbyterian denominations, as well as the Christian Reformed Church and the Reformed Church in America joined in the effort in revising the 1887 Psalter (whose texts actually dated back to the 1871 Book of Psalms; the 1887 edition had added music to the texts.).  The 1912 Psalter included all the psalms in 413 settings, eight doxologies, and the three Lukan canticles (Song of Mary, Song of Zechariah, and Song of Simeon).
— Bert Polman and Jack Reiffer

Composer Information

For the first seventeen years of his life Charles H. Gabriel (b. 1856; d. 1932) lived on an Iowa farm, where friends and neighbors often gathered to sing. Gabriel accompanied them on the family reed organ he had taught himself to play. At the age of sixteen he began teaching singing in schools (following in his father's footsteps) and soon was acclaimed as a fine teacher and composer. He moved to California in 1887 and served as Sunday school music director at the Grace Methodist Church in San Francisco. After moving to Chicago in 1892, Gabriel edited numerous collections of anthems, cantatas, and a large number of songbooks for the Homer Rodeheaver, Hope, and E. O. Excell publishing companies. He composed hundreds of tunes and texts, at times using pseudonyms such as Charlotte G. Homer. The total number of his compositions is estimated at about seven thousand. Gabriel's gospel songs became widely circulated through the Billy Sunday­-Homer Rodeheaver urban crusades.
— Bert Polman
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