Psalter Hymnal (Gray) ‎#290

290. Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

Text Information

• First Line: Give us this day our daily bread
• Title: Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread
• Author: Helen Otte (1986)
• Meter: 84 84 888
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 1987
• Scripture:
  James 1:22
  ;
  James 1
• Topic: Commitment & Dedication; Love: Our Love for Others; Dedication and Offering; Justice; Obedience; Offering; Poverty; Stewardship
• Copyright: Text © 1987, CRC Publications
• CCLI Number: 5021811

Tune Information

• Name: BARBARA
• Composer: Harold W. Friedell, 1905-1958
• Meter: 84 84 888
• Key: B♭ Major
• Copyright: © 1961, Concordia Publishing House. Used by permission.

Text Information:

Scripture References:
st. 1 = Matt. 6:11, Luke 11:3
st. 2 = John 6:35

Beginning with the fourth petition of the Lord's Prayer (Matt. 6:11; Luke 11:3), "Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread" asks God to meet our daily needs and moves quickly to ask that God help us share from our abundance with "a world in need" (st. 1). The text makes clear that our sharing must involve not only daily needs but also the message and example of Christ's love, as we are loved. The text swings full circle by returning to the image of bread (from John 6)-Christ is the "living bread" (st. 2) who feeds the hungry multitudes.

At the request of the Psalter Hymnal Revision Committee, Helen Otte (PHH 17) wrote this text in 1986 for the tune BARBARA, a well-known setting for a text on the same theme: Grace N. Crowell's "Because I Have Been Given Much."

Liturgical Use:
A splendid offertory hymn (st. 1 and 2 also make a fine choral response at the offertory, but do not overuse); also useful in conjunction with stewardship themes.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

Tune Information:

In modified bar-form (AA'B), BARBARA consists of two long lines and a third, longer line that comes to a strong cadence by means of a melisma. Sing this music in unison with firm organ tone. The tune also makes a fine choral prayer during the offertory, perhaps sung without accompaniment.

BARBARA was composed by Harold W. Friedell (b. Jamaica, NY, 1905; d. Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, 1958) and published in Hymns for Children and Grownups (Farrar, Straus, and Young, 1953) as a setting for "Because I Have Been Given Much." The tune was published with the same text in New Songs for the Junior Choir (Concordia, 1961). Friedell taught music theory and composition at the Guilmant Organ School, the School of Sacred Music at Union Theological Seminary, and the Juilliard School of Music. He also served as organist at the Calvary Episcopal Church and St. Bartholomew Church, both in New York City, and at St. John Episcopal Church in Jersey City, New Jersey. Friedell composed a number of hymn tunes, carols, anthems, and service music.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook